Daimon Safari
by Shritistrang
Summary: Mistress 9 is dead, but a few daimons with animal traits remain... and when they take on the characteristics of the Ranma 12 crew, the Sailor Senshi will need all help they can get... Crossover with Sailor Moon and several guest characters.
1. Prologue

It was late in the evening.

Inside his new laboratory at university, Professor Tomoe was going through his research results. All of a sudden, he yawned... he had to continue his work tomorrow. He really was tired.

He was very grateful that the Outer Senshi (he was one of the very few people of Tokyo who knew the identities of the Senshi) let his daughter stay with them... With his work, he had barely the time to look after her. After feeling guilty for a moment, he swore to himself to spend this weekend with his daughter.

After the Professor had packed his stuff and switched the lights off, he got ready to leave... but before he left the dark room, something bothered him.

He couldn't quite place it... but he had the feeling that he had forgotten something, something very important... Something he wanted to tell Hotaru and her friends...

Oh well! Perhaps he would remember tomorrow. He closed the door and left.

----

Meanwhile, in a chamber deep under the destroyed walls of the Mugen academy, something was stirring...

If the poor doctor would remember everything that he had done under the control of the death-buster Germatoid, he would have thought much earlier about that what was still encased underground...

A special batch of old daimon eggs, ready for the hatching! Daimon eggs that did not affect inanimate objects, but living creatures.

Fortunately, with the destruction of Mistress 9 and Pharaoh 90, the evil influence on the daimons was mediocre at best... So they wouldn't really be able to act like mindless monsters, once activated.

Nevertheless, Germatoid had taken some measures in case he or his subordinates would ever be defeated... A special device, attached to those eggs, would activate them after a certain time span, to terrorize the humans in the name of Pharaoh 90... Although, the evil being never reckoned that his master and mistress would ever be defeated.

A faint glow filled the hidden chamber, and then the nine daimon eggs began to stir. Acting like they were on some kind of autopilot, they started floating through the room, and then, through the old pipe shaft every daimon egg had taken in the past.

Automatically searching for the nearest place with many different life forms, the nine eggs approached Tokyo Zoo.

Each daimon egg found a suitable target, latched onto the creature's backside and merged with the life form to create something new...

Opening its eyes, one of the new creatures rose from its slumber and turned to the iron bars of its cage...

About 15 minutes later, a zoo keeper on duty came across the tiger cage... and found two of its bars bent, as if someone or something had pulled them apart by force.

"Oh my..." the man murmured and searched with his flashlight. But the tiger was gone. "Now where did it go..?"

----

Meanwhile, in the dark office of the zoo director...

A faint clicking sound came from the office's door, then it opened, and a young, unshaven man entered the room. With a grin, he pocketed the lock pick he had used to break into the room.

"Now," he chuckled. "Let's see where the good ol' director has all of this day's income..."

His own flashlight wandered across the room, until he found what he was looking for: The safe!

The thief chuckled again. "Bingo..."

He tiptoed over to the massive safe and put his ear on its surface.

"Let's see..." he murmured. "That shouldn't take too much time..."

A finger tipped on his shoulder. He just waved his hands and continued his work. Again, someone tipped his shoulder.

The thief frowned. "What the...? Who's there?"

He turned around... and froze!

Standing in front of him, looking like something out of a horror movie, was a humanoid figure, female in appearance (and with a nice bust, if he could say so in his state of panic), covered in dark fur, with a pair of big ears and two horrifying, leathery wings that made the creature look like a devil from hell.

"Sooo thirsty..." the creature grumbled.

The thief thought his heart would stop.

"YAAAAAAAAH! STAY AWAY FROM ME, BLOODSUCKER!" And flailing with his arms, he ran out of the office, all the time screaming something about 'Dracula's bride'.

The antropomorphic bat Nabiki shrugged and looked through the room. "Where's the booze...?" she grumbled.

----

The thief continued to run through the dark building, reached the stairs and was just going to run down, when suddenly, something smacked right into his face.

"OWCH!" he shouted and held his hurt nose. "Who...?"

A sleek shape was crouching in front of him. The feline ears twitched, while the striped tail was whooshing through the air.

"C'mon," the pig-tailed tiger-girl giggled. "Let's spar!"

"Wh-what is this?" the thief muttered. "A test subject?"

He decided to take a shortcut... and jumped out of the window. Luckily, this was only the first floor.

Ranma looked out of the window. "Aawww, he didn't feel like it? What a bummer..."

Cursing, the thief stumbled out of the bushes in front of the Zoo's office building.

"I have to... get out of here..." he mumbled. He looked upwards... and nearly fell over in shock.

"Oh moo..." the floating girl with the black spots and tiny horns said. "You don't look so well... Maybe you should lie down for a moment?"

And suddenly, the cow-girl fell down from the sky... and right on top of the poor man.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" Kasumi apologized. "I still don't get the hang of this..." She stood up. "Are you all right?"

"G-g-get away from meee!" the thief yelled and ran away.

"Where did those monsters come from?" he wondered. "This is no zoo... this is a freak show! And why do they let such monsters run loose like that?"

Then he stopped. Somehow, it felt very drafty... down there...

He looked down... and yelped as he only saw his underwear. "M-my pants! Where are..."

He heard silly giggling from his right and looked up in time to see something looking like a dog-girl that disappeared behind a building, clutching his pants while chanting: "Michelle! Michelle!"

"Where did she go?" a new voice asked.

"Whaaah!" The thief turned around. "Oh boy, what now?"

The girl standing in front of him had a yellow, furry ponytail and leonine ears. "Hey, you human peasant... get out of the way when the queen of the zoo approaches!"

He shivered when he realized that this was a lion girl. "She's going to eat me, she's going to eat me..."

"What are you babbling about?" the creature asked in confusion. "Um, excuse me..." She raised a finger to her nose. "A... aaaaa... AAAAAAA..."

The thief blinked. "Huh?"

"AH-CHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"

The massive force of the blast of sound and air that came forth from the lioness' muzzle threw him backwards, and made him fly through half of the zoo.

Kodachi sniffed. "S'cuse me..."

----

With a massive headache, the thief stumbled to his feet.

"Hey, sugar... are you hurt?"

"He looks like it... maybe he needs some help..."

"Ah, just leave him alone... He's a man, and they're only trouble..."

The man's eyes darted left and right as his mind tried to cope with the situation he was in.

"No more... no more animal experiments... I'm all for it..." he babbled, got up from the ground, and stumbled away with a confused expression.

The monkey, camel and pig-girl looked after him.

"I think we should call for help," the pig-girl then said.

"Let him go, Akari..." the monkey-girl huffed. "He'll be fine..."

"I dunno, Akane..." the camel-girl said. "He really looks like something hit his head... very hard!"

"We have bigger problems now," Akane grumbled and scratched some fleas out of her fur. "Like, why can we suddenly speak like this?"

----

"Finally," the thief gasped as he reached the gates of the zoo. "Finally... I'm saved..."

He bolted out of the main entrance, turned around and pressed his body against the outer wall of the zoo. He panted hardly.

"I'll never... visit... any zoo again... in my entire life..." he groaned.

"Nihao!" a voice exclaimed.

The thief looked up. "Huh?"

A girl with many feathers looked down at him. "Who you? Shampoo know you?"

The man opened his mouth and screamed: "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!"

"Whaaaah!" the duck-girl yelled. "Don't startle Shampoo like this, or else... uh-oh, here it comes again... quack... quack... QUAAACK!"

And while the man was still screaming, a big, freshly laid egg dropped into his open mouth.

GULP...

----

"Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle aaallll the waaayyyy..."

"Usagi, shut up already! The people are staring!"

The meatball-headed blonde, Usagi Tsukino, grinned sheepishly at her friend, Rei Hino. "Sorry, Rei-chan... it's just that I'm looking forward to Christmas." Her eyes sparkled in excitement. "I can't wait to see if Mom and Dad will buy me the newest Sailor V game."

"I'm surprised that you don't believe in Santa Claus anymore..." Chibiusa said with a frown.

"Of course I do, spore," Usagi grumbled. "But Santa Claus is sooo busy every Christmas season, I doubt he can visit every single person in Japan... That's why I asked Mom to buy me the game."

Luna was walking next to the three girls, her paws sinking into the soft snow. She sweat-dropped. "You never change, do you, Usagi?"

Suddenly, both Rei's and Usagi's Sailor communicators started beeping.

They looked at each other, then Usagi pulled out hers and answered. "Yes?"

It was Hotaru Tomoe, youngest member of the Sailor Senshi. "Usagi-chan... could you please come to my father's house? Something awful happened."

Rei leaned in next to her blonde friend. "Is it Senshi business?" she whispered, so no one would be able to hear her.

The small Senshi of destruction nodded. "I already called Minako, Ami and Makoto... could you please come as quick as possible? I'll tell you everything once you get there."

----

In the nice house of Professor Tomoe, all the other Senshi had already gathered when Usagi and Rei arrived.

The Professor smiled at them. "Good to see you again. I'm sorry to bother you at this time, but this morning, I had a flash of memory from the being that had possessed me, Germatoid."

"It must be something really important if you're calling us all because of that memory," Makoto pondered.

Tomoe nodded. "Yes... I'm afraid that while you managed to defeat all of the death-busters, there still have been some daimon eggs left, hidden underneath Mugen Academy."

"I already figured something like this..." Haruka groaned. "So, we have to go there and smash them up, right?"

"But wait a minute," Ami said. "I doubt that you would've gathered us all if it would be that simple, correct? I mean, those daimon eggs usually need someone to give them some kind of 'instructions', do they?"

Tomoe looked uncomfortable. "I'm afraid Germatoid installed some sort of automatic activation device that made the eggs merge with several living beings once activated... He made it in case he would be defeated some day."

"Did you say 'living beings?" Minako asked. "I thought those guys only possess lifeless things..."

"Well, those daimons seem to be different from the ones we usually fought," Setsuna explained. "They managed to merge with several animals in the Tokyo zoo tonight." She held up a newspaper. "It's all in the news: A thief who was going to rob the zoo director's office has been caught, and he ran into several of those animal-daimons."

Tomoe scratched his head. "Well, actually... he surrendered himself to the police... and the strange thing was, he somehow acted like a duck. He could still think like a normal human being and was able to head to the nearest police station, but all the time, he was quacking and flapping his arms like wings."

"Those transformed animals have some strange new powers from the daimon eggs," Setsuna said. "But as Pharaoh 90 is destroyed, they are not evil. So please, attack them if you must, but do not destroy them. We'll try to catch them all and bring them here, to find a way to turn them back."

"Sounds almost like a Pokémon game," Minako grinned. "Gotta snatch'em all!"

Artemis sweat-dropped. "That's: Gotta CATCH'em all, Minako..."

"Those poor animals..." Chibiusa said. "They must be really confused..."

"Well, whatever they might think of their new situation, with their new abilities, they're definitely a threat to the city," Rei said. "They probably won't like it, but we have to get them."

"It's probably the best if we split up in several groups to search for them," Setsuna said. She handed everyone a sheet of paper. "The Professor and I have prepared a list with all of the daimons and their powers... also which animals from the zoo escaped. We don't know which one of them has been possessed by which daimon, but we should be able to find them pretty easily."

Michiru smiled and grabbed Haruka's arm. "I'll go with Haruka!"

Makoto grinned. "Why am I not surprised?"

"I know!" Usagi grinned. "I'll ask Mamoru if he wants to help as well."

"I-I'm coming, too!" Chibiusa quickly said.


	2. The Bat

Several hours later, the various Senshi troops were already searching through the city.

Mamoru checked the list. "Well, won't this be fun..." he grumbled. "The first daimon on the list has the ability to fly and create supersonic blasts..."

Usagi peered over his shoulder. Chibiusa jumped up next to them, but couldn't see anything. "Hey, I wanna see too!"

Usagi sweat-dropped. "It likes to drink sake and other alcoholic beverages?"

Mamoru shrugged. "Well, I guess everyone has his flaws..."

----

In the biggest and finest bar of the neighborhood, the owner lazily cleaned his counter with a rag, whistling a tune. It was still pretty early, so he didn't expect any customers.

That's when he heard the door to his establishment opening.

'A customer?' his slow brain wondered. 'That early? Ah, I know who that is...'

And without looking up from his work, he asked in his grumpy voice: "What can I do for you, Miss Mishima?"

When he didn't get an answer, he looked up... and right into the face of a furred being with pointy fangs, big ears and an enormous wingspan.

"Hey there!" Nabiki grinned. "Can a girl get something to drink here?"

"WHAAAAAAAH!" the bartender yelled, ran out from behind his counter and out of his bar.

The bat-girl looked after him. "Geeze, he's acting like he never saw a human-sized bat before." She shrugged. "Oh well..."

Her gaze then fell onto the BIIIIIG amount of alcoholic beverages standing inside the shelves behind the counter.

"Well, helloooooo there," she grinned.

----

Usagi, Chibiusa and Mamoru were just walking past the bar, when the owner came running out, shouting: "Help me! Save me! A VAMPIRE!"

Usagi and Mamoru looked at each other. "A vampire in a bar?" Usagi wondered.

Mamoru sighed. "Has to be our little Miss 'Swig-a-lot'..."

They headed inside... and were staring at an absurd scene.

Numerous bottles of all kinds of alcoholic drinks were littered all over the counter and floor, and behind the counter, the antropomorphic bat was guzzling one bottle of booze after another.

"Wheeeee..." Nabiki chanted. "Now thish ish life... (hic) Heeeyyyoouuu... wanna have shome ash well? (hic)"

"I've never seen a boozy daimon before..." Usagi muttered. "How many do you think she had?"

"I'm sorry," Chibiusa replied to the daimon. "But I'm a child and not allowed to drink."

"Nooo?" Nabiki wondered. "Now that'sh a shame... Oh well... (hic) I guessh I'll be off, then... (hic)"

She climbed onto the counter and prepared for takeoff.

"We have to stop her," Mamoru shouted. "When she flies away, we'll have a hard time catching her."

"I've got her!" Usagi shouted and lunged for the bat.

"No, I've got her!" Chibiusa yelled and dove for the bat as well.

CLONG!

At the last minute, Nabiki had managed to jump over the two odango'ed girls' heads and soared towards the exit. As a result, Chibiusa's and Usagi's heads had collided with each other.

BONK! Nabiki collided with the door frame, but kept on flying.

"Ouch..." she muttered. "Gotta be careful... shomehow, my balanshe ish totally off... (hic) Perhapsh I need shome shtronger shtuff..."

"Hey, come back here!" Mamoru shouted and ran after her.

Outside, he realized that she was too far away from the ground that he might have a chance of catching her. And he could not transform into Tuxedo Kamen right here in the middle of the street... It would've been to late, anyway.

So he did the next logical thing: He picked up a stone that was lying on the pavement and threw it after the flying bat (whose flight path was slightly... wobbly).

His aim was perfect, his immediate reaction admirable... but he could not predict the slight 'staggering' in Nabiki's flight path, so the stone missed the bat when she slightly tilted to the right... and the thrown object crashed right into the window of a jewelry shop.

Mamoru winced when immediately, the alarm of the shop went off.

The shop's owner ran out on the street and gasped as he saw what happened to his window. "HELP! POLICE! I'M BEING ROBBED!"

Mamoru hastily shook his head. "Nonono... it was the bat!"

----

Police officer Leon McNichol was just on patrol, when he heard the alarm and the cries of the shop owner.

He turned around the corner, saw the dark-haired man who had obviously thrown a stone into the broken window, and raised his gun. "Okay, pal," he shouted. "Hands up into the air!"

The young man in front of him stuttered: "B-but you don't understand... It was because of that bat-girl..."

"Yeah, right..." Leon grumbled. "I said hands up, so up with 'em!"

The young man sighed. "Right away, officer..."

Leon approached him carefully and put him into handcuffs. "And no games, got it?"

----

Usagi and Chibiusa just recovered from the 'blow' they had given each others heads.

"Ow..." Usagi whined. "That hurt..." Then she got angry. "CHIBIUSA! You little spore! Can't you look where you're going?"

"Excuse me?" the pink-haired girl yelled back. "If it wasn't for your clumsiness, we would have captured the daimon already, you meatball-head!"

Then they looked around. "Say, where's Mamoru?"

They went out of the bar... and gasped as they saw how the police officer lead the handcuffed Mamoru away.

"Ooooh, they arrested my Mamo-chan? Why? Whatever did he do?"

Chibiusa sighed. "I guess everyone has his dark little secret..."

Usagi looked like she was ready to cry. "No! Not my Mamo-chan! Chibiusa! We have to do something!"

Chibiusa sighed. "All right, all right... but I only do this because of Mamoru!"

----

"Chief!" Leon shouted as he entered the office of his chief officer Todo. "I caught a man who wanted to break into Mr. Ishida's jewelry shop."

Chief Todo looked up from his work... and grimaced as he saw just WHAT Leon had brought into his office.

"Care to explain, officer?" he grumbled in a dangerous voice.

"What do you mean...?" Leon asked before turning around to face his 'prisoner'...

It was a human-sized blow-up doll, handcuffed just like the black-haired man had been.

Leon's jaw looked like it was ready to fell down to the floor. "W-what?" he muttered. "H-how can this be? I could've sworn..."

"I know only one thing," Todo yelled. "If you want to play your kinky games, play them at home or wherever... BUT NOT AT WORK!! YOU HEAR ME??"

Leon gulped. "Y-yes, sir..."

----

Shortly after, the blow-up doll came flying into the big trash can in front of the police department. The confused officer shook his head and went back inside.

A little, pink-haired girl looked around the corner, giggled and made a motion with her hands. In a puff of smoke, the blow-up doll turned into a floating black ball, looking like a cat's head.

"Good job, Luna-P," Chibiusa grinned as her floating toy/tool returned to her.

"I still say I should go back and speak to the police," Mamoru muttered. "Now they believe I'm a burglar and are most likely searching for me..."

"And what exactly do you want to tell them?" Chibiusa asked. "That a human-sized bat made you throw the rock, but you couldn't hit it because it was drunk?"

"Don't worry!" Usagi giggled. "I believe no one will take that officer seriously again for a while..." She sighed. "Although I kinda feel sorry for him... He was cute..."

Mamoru sweat-dropped. "Usagi... I'm standing right here, you know?"

"Oops!" She giggled. "Sorry about that, Mamo-chan..."

"HEY!" Chibiusa suddenly shouted. "Look, up there!" And she gestured towards the window of a tall apartment building on the other side of the street.

High up there, a humanoid bat was staggering around, clutching a sake bottle within her hand.

"Wheeeeh..." Nabiki yelled. "Yoohoo, down there... you look like antsh to me, sho shmall..."

"We have to be quick, or she flies away again," Mamoru said. "Perhaps we should transform first..."

Usagi nodded. "Yeah, good idea!"

----

House wife Naoko Mayumi was sitting in the living room of her apartment, knitting on a sweater for her grandchild... when suddenly, her gaze fell to her window.

"YIKES!" she yelled. "ROSHI! ROSHI! A VAMPIRE!"

----

While Mrs. Mayumi was yelling for her husband, Sailor Moon prepared to give her beloved Tuxedo Kamen a little lift.

"Be careful," she said as his right foot stepped into her ouststretched hands.

"Don't worry, I'll be fine," the tuxedo-clad defender of justice assured her. "Now, throw me up!"

"Okay! Here you... GO!!"

Mamoru flew up into the air and tried grabbing the drunk bat-daimon.

Nabiki looked down into her bottle. "Huh... Ish it empty again? Sho shad... (hic) Aw, have to go find another, then..." And she took off right when Tuxedo Kamen came flying up to her.

She flew away... and Mamoru's hands grabbed nothing but empty air. He just had enough time to think 'Dang'... and then his head slammed right into the frame of the window.

"Owwww..." he groaned and held his head.

----

Meanwhile, Mrs. Mayumi had been able to find her husband, who followed her into their living room, carrying an impressive shotgun.

"Whaaaah!" the old woman yelled when instead of the bat-creature, she saw the figure of a man wearing a black cape. "It turned into DRACULA! ROSHI, DO SOMETHING!"

And her husband angrily raised his shotgun... and fired! "TAKE THIS, BLOODSUCKER!"

BLAM!

When the elderly couple looked at the window again, the intruder was gone.

Roshi grinned. "That showed him!"

"I better call the police, Roshi..." his wife said in fright.

Sailor Moon and Chibimoon looked down at the charred, twitching form of Tuxedo Kamen, who was lying flat on the pavement.

"Ouch..." Chibimoon winced. "That HAD to hurt..."

----

Back at the police station, officer Leon slammed down his phone. "Chief!" he shouted. "Someone just tried to break into an apartment building... and it was a young, black-haired man! Perhaps it's just the guy that also broke into the jewelry shop."

"Then what are you waiting for?" Todo growled. "Go out there and GET HIM!"

"R-right away, sir!"

----

"Poor Tuxedo Kamen..." Chibiusa said as she helped the caped defender of Juuban get back to his feet. "Does it hurt much?"

"I felt better..." came the groaned response.

Suddenly, Sailor Moon snapped her fingers. "Listen, I have an idea... how about we make a trap?"

"As long as we don't fall in ourselves..." Chibimoon sighed. "Okay, what's your plan?"

"It's very simple, actually." Usagi grinned as she installed her trap next to the sidewalk. "We just attach this sack to that tree, see...? And as a lure, we'll use a bottle of SAKE! And when our dear bat takes it, ta-daah... She'll be caught! What d'you say?"

"Might work," Mamoru said. "It's not the best plan, but as it is the only one we have..."

Usagi attached a small bell to the sack. "So we can hear when she's caught... And now, we hide until it jingles!"

They hurried back behind the corner of a building and waited.

----

Sayoko Mishima felt miserable as she walked down the street. That stupid Belldandy... why did she have to outclass her in everything? Why? It just wasn't fair...

Sure, that baking contest may not have been the best idea... But she couldn't allow that girl to attract the attention of every single guy of Nekomi Tech just because she made some cupcakes for Keiichi, right? So her pride demanded only one thing: Show that she was the best at making cakes!

Of course, it turned out to be a total flop... Not only did Belldandy win the contest, no, Sayoko's cake just HAD to explode right in the faces of the judges...

That's why right now, Sayoko was on her way to her favorite bar in Juuban, to forget her shame...

Suddenly, she spotted something strange: A lonely bottle of sake, sitting right at the side of the sidewalk... Did someone forget it there?

Sayoko grinned. "Well, as long as no one complains, I guess I'll take it myself." And she grabbed the bottle...

----

When she heard the jingling of the bell, Usagi grinned. "We got her now!"

"Quick now!" Chibimoon shouted. Together, they ran over to the sack, in which their booty was fidgeting around.

"Stop struggling!" Tuxedo Kamen said, as he grabbed the sack and bound the opening tightly with a rope. "This is for your own good!"

"Ah-hah!" another voice suddenly called out. "Caught you red-handed!"

Officer Leon McNichol approached the trio. He carefully looked at the man with the tuxedo and the mask. From the description of the elderly couple, this had to be the burglar.

Now you have to know that Leon has heard from the Sailor Senshi before, but as he wasn't from Juuban (and to tell the truth, he always had believed them to be an urban legend), he didn't know who was standing in front of him. Tuxedo Kamen, he has never heard of before.

"Okay, don't move!" he shouted. "What's in the sack?"

"You got it all wrong, officer!" Sailor Moon raised her hands in defense. "We just caught a daimon in there..."

Leon frowned. "A what?"

"Um, a really big bat-monster..."

The officer snickered. "Very funny... okay, open the sack!"

"But, officer..."

"NOW!"

Usagi sighed. "Very well, as you wish..." And she obeyed.

Sayoko gasped for air as her head came bursting forth from the sack. "Help!" she cried. "Officer! I've been ambushed! Arrest them!"

Leon didn't look too happy. "Does this look like a bat-monster to you?" He drew his gun. "All right, playtime's over... turn around and put your hands on the wall."

"But officer!"

"Do it!"

Usagi groaned as they obeyed. Chibimoon glared up at her future mother. "Great plan, meatball head..."

----

Chief Todo was just going through some files, when he heard Leon's voice from outside his office.

"Chief! Good news! You'll be happy to see what I brought you..."

And he entered his chief's office. "See?"

Todo furrowed his brows. "Just what is the meaning of this, officer?" he grumbled.

Leon didn't understand. "Why, I just brought you... uh... uh-oh..."

Uh-oh indeed... because what the poor officer was dragging around with him wasn't the three persons he had arrested earlier, but only a pair of shiny, brand-new leather corsets.

"Wha...? I mean... I know I had them... Please, sir, I can explain..."

"STOP TRYING TO MAKE ME PART OF YOUR KINKY LITTLE GAMES!!" the chief yelled. "I'm not gay!!"

Another officer who just came walking past the chief's office, whistled. "Man, Leon... I never knew..."

Leon whimpered. "Why me...?"

----

"I definitely don't like this," Mamoru grumbled. "At this rate, the Sailor Senshi will turn into outlaws..."

"We had no time explaining all of this," Usagi said. "You should thank Chibiusa for her little Luna-P's abilities."

"Yeah," Chibiusa nodded. "Besides, what else do we have our police for, if not to play some pranks on their officers every now and then?"

Mamoru looked sternly at his girlfriend. "Usagi... I'm afraid you're not a good role model for her..."

Back in their civilian forms, they decided to take a little break in a little cafe, before they continued their pursuit of the bat-daimon...

----

Hikaru Koto, the cafe's old waiter, was also the owner of the small establishment. His employees often asked him to stop working so hard, they could handle everything... but he just laughed and told them they shouldn't worry too much about his health.

Truth was, they weren't really too worried about his health... only about his bad eyesight. Mr. Koto could not tell a cherry cake from an apple pie, and that was very bad for business... but poor ol' Hikaru could never bring himself to wear his glasses...

He really didn't believe he needed them. He could see that some new customers were sitting at table 4, so he walked over to them and asked: "What may I bring you?"

"A biiiig sundae!" Usagi shouted with excitement.

"Usagi, we don't have time for this," Mamoru exclaimed. "We'll just take a soda each, thank you!"

Mr. Koto went and shortly after, came back with the beverages. "Here you are, four sodas!"

"Four?" Chibiusa asked. "Why four? Can't you count?"

"But there are four of you, aren't there?" the old waiter asked in confusion.

Usagi, Mamoru and Chibiusa turned around... and sitting behind them was a furry girl with leather wings and pointy teeth.

Nabiki grinned. "Hi there!"

They all gasped. "YOU!!"

Mr. Koto backed off in fright as three of the customers suddenly pounced on the fourth, pressing her down to the ground.

"Hey... OW... What the heck are you doing?"

"You're not getting away this time!" Usagi shouted. "Chibiusa, we need some rope."

"Got it," the pink-haired girl nodded, and with a 'puff', Luna-P turned into a long rope, which they used to tie the bat up.

Nabiki struggled as Mamoru picked her up. "Lemme go! That's not fair!"

"Sorry, little bat... but we'll take you back to the zoo!"

"Oh well..." Nabiki groaned and stopped her flailing. "After all, this cafe doesn't have any good stuff..."

And while the threesome dragged the tied bat back to Professor Tomoe's house, Mr. Koto was on the phone.

"Hello? Police? Yes, this is Mr. Koto speaking... one of my customers has been kidnapped! The culprits? Well, it was this guy with black hair, the blonde with the unusual hairstyle..."


	3. The Duck

"What are you doing, Ami?" Minako asked curiously as the blue-haired girl genius inspected a slimy substance splattered over the pavement.

"I'm scanning this weird stuff," Ami explained, showing that her Mercury scanner worked even if she didn't turn into Sailor Mercury.

Minako frowned. "Looks like the remains of a normal egg to me..." she muttered.

"Not entirely..." Ami said. "It might look like a normal egg... a duck's egg, I might point out... but it has some very unusual properties that lead me to believe that it might be the byproduct from one of the animal daimons."

Minako scratched her head. "Um... byproduct?"

"Um... I mean a daimon laid it, Minako!"

"Ah!" Now the red-bowed blonde understood. "So, what's so unusual about the egg?"

"It looks, smells and tastes just like a normal duck's egg," Ami realized. "Only that it is much larger... Also, if a human being were to consume such an egg, it's unusual components would change the behavior pattern of the affected human..."

Minako was confused. "Um... in a language I understand, please?"

Ami sighed. "Whenever a human would eat the egg - raw or cooked - he would start acting just like a duck."

"No way!"

Ami nodded. "Yes, and while I'm pretty sure that this change of behavior will wear off after a short while, we should make sure that the daimon doesn't lay too many eggs any innocent pedestrian could pick up and take home."

Minako gulped. "Well, then we should find her, fast..."

----

While the two Senshi in human disguises were beginning their search, a humanoid figure whose body was being covered by white feathers, watched them from above.

"Shampoo no like this," she muttered. "No wanna go back in cage... being free is so much better."

Then she hiccuped. "Oh no, is starting again... Ooooh, every time Shampoo is getting upset..."

She squatted down on the edge of the roof and grimaced.

And with a loud "QUAAAAACK!", her newest egg fell down from the roof...

----

Leon was still searching for the three persons he believed to be the culprits of various crimes...

"They won't get away with this when I finally arrest them," he grumbled. "Burglary, assault, kidnapping, and mockery of a police officer..."

But before he could say anything else, something hard and slimy hit his head.

"Ow!" he groaned and felt his head. "What... what the heck was that?"

He grimaced as he felt the slimy remains of the giant duck egg that was spread over his head.

"Yuck!" he said in disgust. "Did some pigeon drop its egg or what?"

He looked up, but could not see anything.

He then looked at his right index finger, which was still coated with the slimy stuff. He stared at it for a while, shrugged and put the finger in his mouth...

----

"What are you still doing here?" Chief Todo bellowed at police officer Nene Romanova. "Why aren't you with your new partner? You were supposed to help him catch the burglars."

Nene fumed. How was she gonna make her chief clear that while she liked working with Leon, she very much preferred working in her office, as their department's communication and computer expert?

"The two of you would have a much easier time searching for the culprits together, you know?" Todo continued his tirade. "And now Leon has to do everything by himself, all alone, like a lone wolf..."

"QUACK!!"

Todo and Nene both blinked. What was that?

At that moment, Leon came bursting into the office, waving his arms around as if they were wings, and quacking just like a duck.

"A lone wolf, huh...?" Nene muttered and raised an eyebrow.

Todo growled and walked around his desk. "What the heck do you think you're doing, officer? First, you try to involve me in your kinky games, and now you're behaving like some crazy fowl during duck hunting season!"

Leon tried desperately to explain, but everything that came out of his mouth was: "Quack! Quaaack!"

Todo had seen enough. "Dammit, stop this! Or at least do something useful and lay an egg!"

While Nene could only giggle at that, Leon wished the earth would open up and swallow him...

----

"Hey, you!" Minako shouted as she and Ami ran after the antropomorphic duck-girl. "Wait up! We don't want to hurt you!"

"Shampoo no think so!" the duck responded, stuck out her tongue and sped up.

When she ran around a corner, her stomach started gurgling again. "Ooooowowowowow... all this running is no good for Shampoo... q-q-quaaack!" There went another egg...

----

Toshiyuki Aoshima groaned as he staggered along the streets. Damn his cousin and her stupid plans... because of that baking contest, he had missed another chance to woo the beautiful Belldandy... and not only that, but he also met that crazy, dark-skinned sister of hers, got electrocuted ONCE AGAIN, and on top of that, he lost his wallet.

"What I would give for a nice lunch," he moaned as his stomach gurgled. "I'm so hungry I could eat a whole cow..."

Then the rich boy stopped, and his gaze fell on the egg that was resting in the middle of the sidewalk. He smiled. "Well, I guess this will have to do for now..."

And he picked up the egg...

"QUACK! QUACK!"

"Luckily our friend leaves a trail we can follow," Minako said and gestured towards the young man in the expensive suit that was flapping around like a duck.

----

"Quack! Quack!"

"Ayeka, please stop this... Ryoko, why did you have to throw that egg at her?"

"Does that mean we have to fetch some bird seed from the market now, Tenchi?" Sasami wondered.

Ryoko grinned. "I don't see your problem, I think she's much better like this!"

The quacking, purple-haired princess of Yurai threw the former space pirate an evil glare.

----

"Quack! Quack!"

"Misty, what did you do to Pikachu?"

"ME? Why should I have to do anything to do with that?"

"Well, I'd really like to know why he's acting like your Psyduck."

"I didn't do anything, I only fed him an egg..."

----

"Now we got her!" Minako shouted in glee, as they watched Shampoo leaping over a tall fence.

They climbed after her... and stared at the large number of ducks in front of them.

At the other end of the massive yard, a big sign read: 'Tachi's Happy Duck Ranch'.

"Perhaps she's not as dumb as we believed her to be..." Ami groaned. "Looking like she does, she can easily hide among her fellow ducks, even if she's half-daimon..."

"Does that mean we have to search through all of those ducks?" Minako whined.

"Q-q-q-quack! QUACK! QUAAAACK!"

POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POPOPOPOPOPOPOPOPOPOP...

Ami and Minako gasped as they stared at the enormous hill of duck eggs lying in the middle of the duck-filled yard, and the duck-girl sitting on top.

Minako giggled. "Now she gave herself away..."

"Stupid Shampoo..." the feathered girl whined. "Why can't you calm down for once...?"

----

"If Shampoo wasn't too exhausted from laying too too many eggs, you'd be sorry!" the white-feathered duck-girl grumbled as Ami and Minako carried her away.

"Could you please be quiet?" Minako growled. "You've been quacking along since we left that duck ranch..."

"Shampoo no want to go back in cage."

"Yeah, I can understand why... Now shut up... or else I'll use my Crescent Beam and we'll have extra crispy duck on the menu!"

Shampoo grimaced. "Shampoo shutting up now..."

----

"Man, the chief sure was pissed..." Leon groaned when he and Nene left the office building of the police department. "But I somehow understand him... I don't understand it either...Why did I act like this? Why didn't you stop me? Why did that girl have feathers? Why...?"

"Be quiet, you're giving me a headache," Nene complained. "I guess you've just stumbled right into the middle of a fight between the Sailor Senshi and one of their enemies."

"The... Sailor who?" Leon asked in ignorance.

"You wanna tell me you've never heard of the Senshi before?"

"Uh... should I?"

Nene sighed. "Never mind, sit down and listen, this is gonna take a while..."


	4. The Dog

Leon had listened closely to Nene's stories about Sailor Moon and her Senshi. The young policewoman didn't know too much about their backgrounds and the true stories about their fights, but she could tell him everything from a police officer's view.

Leon frowned. "So, you want to tell me that those Senshi are outlaws, right?"

Nene grimaced. "Well, you could say it like this, but..."

"Of course they are!" Leon grumbled. "Taking the law into their own hands when the police can do the very same thing... They're truly lucky that they've never been arrested before. But this is about to change, because..." He smirked as he stood up and twirled around his gun. "Leon McNichol is on the case!"

"Leon, I really believe you should shut up and let the true heroes do their work..." Nene sighed.

Suddenly, Leon blinked... and looked down at his now empty hand. "My... my weapon?" he said in confusion.

He looked up just in time to see an antropomorphic dog-girl running away from him, clutching his gun to her chest and chanting: "Francoise! Francoise!"

"H-hey!" he yelled. "Give that back!" And he ran after the dog-daimon called Azusa.

Nene shook her head. "I guess he'll never learn..."

----

From the top of a building on the other side of the street, Sailors Neptune and Uranus peered down at the scene.

"I guess that's the daimon we have to take care of," Uranus realized.

"Yes," Neptune nodded. "According to the doctor's informations, this one has developed a kleptomaniac personality and will steal anything that's smaller than a lawnmower... Also, her special ability allows her to create a subspace-pocket in which she can store an unlimited amount of objects."

She then turned around to her fellow Senshi and potential lover. "Haruka?"

"Sorry..." the mumbled reply came from behind some journal. "Can't talk... car magazine..."

Neptune growled. "Is there anything else you're thinking of?"

Suddenly, a high-pitched voice shouted: "Jacques! Jacques!"

And with an excited yip, Azusa snatched away Uranus' magazine.

Haruka fumed. "You... you overgrown fleabag... GIVE ME BACK MY MAGAZINE!!"

She snarled. "That old mutt is NOT gonna get away with this..."

"Well, how do you plan on catching her?" Michiru asked.

Her blonde partner grinned. "Don't worry, I've got a plan!" She produced a big bone from behind her back. "We just lure her in with this, then we catch her by surprise. After all, what kind of dog can resist a big, juicy bone?"

Michiru looked at the bone. "You don't expect me to..."

"Don't worry, I'll do this one myself," Haruka replied.

----

Leon was still searching around the streets for the Senshi... or perhaps for his stolen gun. Nene agreed to help him reluctantly, and so the two police officers decided to split up to find them.

Nene turned around the corner. "Damn, it can't be too hard finding some dumb dog OR the Senshi..." she murmured. Then her gaze fell on a lone woman standing on the side of the street... and a bone was tied to her clothes with some thread.

"Poor woman," she murmured. "Only has a bone as provisions... perhaps I should help her..."

Haruka smirked when she heard footsteps behind her, and someone tugged at the bone she had fastened to her clothes.

Quickly, she turned around and gave that person a swift punch into the face. "Now I've got you, you bitch!"

But her triumphal sneer turned into a confused stare when she looked down at the young policewoman that was lying on the ground and rubbed her swollen face.

"Bitch?" she angrily snarled. "BITCH??? Oh, that does it... Leon was right! You Senshi DO belong behind bars!"

Haruka wasn't stupid. After living in a world full of spiteful boyfriends, a girl like her knew that an angry police officer was bad news.

"Heheheh..." she chuckled nervously. "I think I should go now..." And she did the wisest thing in this situation: She turned around and ran.

"Come back here!" Nene yelled. "I've got a score with you to settle!"

----

"Doesn't look like it turned out as you imagined, huh?" Michiru asked her heavily panting partner.

"Well... that's no problem, I still have some ideas..."

"Perhaps I should try my luck, then..." Michiru suggested. "You look beat..."

"An excellent idea, Michiru," Haruka beamed. "And I've got just the thing we can use to catch the dog-girl." And she produced another item. "Ta-daah!"

Michiru blinked. "Um, isn't that... Usagi's disguise pen? How did you get that?"

"I borrowed it for a while," Haruka simply explained. "Now old still..." She waved around the disguise pen like a baton and pointed it at her girlfriend. "Turn Michiru into... a dog-girl!"

"Haruka, you can't expect that would..."

FLASH!

"...work?" The furry Senshi looked down at her hands and tail in confusion. "What the...?"

"See?" Haruka smirked. "I knew it could do that! Now all you have to do is to befriend that little kleptomaniac and make sure she feels safe... and then we can pounce on her."

The turquoise-furred labrador-girl stared back at her partner darkly. "If this doesn't work... I'm going to KILL you!" she grumbled.

Haruka smiled weakly. "Heh... don't worry! It'll work..."

'I hope...' she thought.

----

"Damn..." Nene grumbled. "That Senshi got away…" She shook her head. "I don't believe it... Why are the Senshi doing something like this? Hmmm... Now what shall I do with this bone?"

"Just leave it here, dear..." a sweet old lady called from her garden. "I'll find some doggy that will love it."

----

Michiru padded down the street. Thankfully, not too many people were around, so she was spared the biggest humiliations...

"When someone recognizes me like this, I'm gonna take a bite out of Haruka's ass, I swear it..." she growled.

Just then, someone pulled her tail. Michiru gasped and turned around.

"Good doggie, fine doggie... yes, you're a good girl..."

Michiru gulped... she knew that old woman. Slightly senile with not a very good eyesight, she must have confused her with a real dog.

The old lady waved the big, juicy bone around. "I have a tasty treat for you, doggie... come and get it!"

Michiru shook her head and backed off. No, thanks!

"Now, be a good girl and fetch the bone..."

Michiru backed off again.

The old woman looked at her sternly. "Bad dog! If I have a nice treat for you, you better appreciate it. Now open that mouth..."

Michiru grimaced as the old woman came closer. No... no... anything but that...

----

"Michiru, did you get her?" Haruka asked as she came around the corner.

She gulped when she saw her dog-like partner writhing around on the pavement, clutching her sides in pain, which was not very elegant...

"Oooowwww... that stupid old lady... she gave me that bone of yours, and... and I had to eat it... Oooooh, I think I'm gonna be sick..."

She snatched the disguise pen out of Haruka's hands. "Gimme that!" And she turned herself back to normal.

"Throwbacks only make us stronger," Haruka exclaimed. "I've just had another plan... We use the old antagonism between dogs and cats. I'm sure Luna will help us if we ask her nicely..."

Michiru stared at Haruka with a hostile gleam in her eyes.

An instant later, Haruka rubbed her red cheek in confusion and looked after her pissed partner. "Does that mean you don't like my plans?"

----

"Naru, didn't you want to wear your new necklace today?"

"Yes, Mom, but... all of a sudden, this strange dog ran past me and took it away from me..."

"Jacqueline! Jacqueline!"

----

"Where... Mackie, where the heck is my bike? You said you only wanted to fix the brakes."

"Well, um..." the young boy scratched his head in embarrassment. "I was going to, but... You probably won't believe me what happened, Priss..."

Priss Asagiri snarled angrily. "Dammit, I want no excuses! WHERE IS MY BIKE?"

"Antoine! Antoine!"

ZOOM!

Priss blinked. "Mackie, did you just see what I saw?"

Mackie chuckled nervously and shook his head. "No, I did not just see a cute dog-girl zoom past the house on your bike..."

"Ah... that's fine, then..."

And Priss went inside to ask Sylia for some aspirin...

----

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN SOMEONE STOLE YOUR MAGIC WAND?"

Doremi cringed. "I'm sorry," the witch-in-training whined.

ZOOM! Came a dog-girl running past the magic shop.

"Nicole! Nicole!"

----

Azusa was sitting on a bench in the middle of the park, giggling, petting her cute darlings she managed to collect this day and giving them french pet names.

Michiru carefully snuck up on her, hidden behind the bushes.

"If Haruka thinks she can make fun of me, she's wrong... I'll show her! I catch that dog myself and then... then... Well, we'll see what's then..."

She came a little closer and smirked... the dog-girl didn't suspect anything.

"I think I'll just tackle her to the ground..." she pondered. True, that wasn't too elegant, but... There were times when crudeness was far more effective than elegance.

Like a living missile, the Senshi of Neptune launched her body towards the startled Azusa.

"Don't you try and run! Now I..."

"GOTCHA!" a second voice shouted, as suddenly, Uranus popped out of a trash can next to the bench, picked up a second trash can and put it over the frightened dog-girl.

Michiru had only time to yelp... before her head crashed against the metal of the trash can.

Haruka grinned. "Heh, see, Michiru? I got her!"

She then looked around the trash can in confusion. "Ummm, Michiru... did that hurt?"

Michiru slowly got up from the ground with glowing eyes and cracked her knuckles. "Haaaruuukaaa... would you pleeeaaase come a little closer?"

Haruka gulped. "Now why do I have the feeling THAT's gonna hurt even more...?"

Soft pounding came from within the trash can. "Hellooo? Little Azusa doesn't want to play hide and seek! Can you get me out of here? Hello?"


	5. The Pig

While the dog was finally caught (and Michiru was giving Haruka one heck of a pounding), Makoto and Rei were on their own search.

"Finding one of those animal-girls can't be too difficult, right?" Rei growled in annoyance. "So why didn't we stumble over one by now?"

"Hey!" Makoto nudged her friend's arm and gestured over to one of the trees in the park. "Do you see that?"

Standing next to the tree, humming happily, the cute pig-girl called Akari was busy grooming her beautiful hair...

"I can't believe our luck," Makoto whispered. "If we're careful, we can get her without any trouble."

At the same time, Officer Leon McNichols was busy searching the streets. 'Great,' he thought. 'Now I don't only have to search for those Senshi, but also for that thief that stole Priss' bike... As if I don't have anything better to do...'

Slowly, he approached the very same tree under which little Akari was sitting... but he didn't see her, as she was sitting on the other side of the tree, leaning against the trunk.

But instead, he saw the two Senshi... and one of them just gestured his way and shouted: "Let's get the pig!"

Leon cringed. "That's... that's... DEFAMATION OF A CIVIL SERVANT ON DUTY!" he yelled and ran around the tree. "Stop right there, Sailor Senshi... you are under arrest!"

"Whaaaa...?" Rei yelped in surprise. "Now what did you do this time, Makoto? Pound some boys again?"

"WHAT?" the brunette yelled. "You gotta be kidding me!"

Then they decided they should take care of that later... and concentrated on running.

Akari looked after the policeman who was chasing after the two Senshi and blinked.

"Those humans are far too stressed out... they have to learn how to relax, I believe..."

Later, Akari was strolling around the streets, humming happily to herself... until she bumped into an obstacle.

She looked up... and up... and finally into the face of a truly titanic man, with the muscle structure of a grizzly bear, a large amount of scars on his skin and a scrubby beard. He was only wearing a pair of shorts and some red boots.

The man didn't say anything, but Akari felt intimidated just because of his sheer size. "Um... excuse me?" she said in a small voice. "Could you please move out of the way?"

Zangief, professional Russian wrestler, peered down at the little pig girl. After many years, he was once again visiting the interesting country of Japan... but now his stomach was gurgling.

Now Zangief was a man with many merits. He was powerful, brave and had a strong sense of justice. He also loved his home country of 'Mother Russia' dearly.

But sadly, Zangief was not too bright... and very often, his stomach did the thinking for him.

So the only thing he saw was something resembling a pig, so his slow brain told him: 'Pig Food'.

He grinned and picked up the slender pig-girl effortlessly. "You're just the thing I need. I think I'll take you with me into my hotel room..."

Akari was very nervous when the massive arms of the wrestler wrapped themselves around her lithe little body. "Oh my..." she murmured. "Poor, defenseless me... carried off by a massive brute, and who knows what's he going to do with me... Whatever shall I do?"

----

After having lost the persistent policeman, Makoto and Rei returned back to where they had seen Akari first.

"Where did she go?" Rei grumbled angrily.

A nice pedestrian told them how he saw the famous Russian wrestler carrying Akari off into the nearby hotel.

"Well, if he's famous, I'm sure we can persuade him to give that pig to us," Makoto said confidently. "Wait here, I'll take care of that by myself..."

And while Rei waited, the Senshi of lightning went into the hotel's lobby and asked the man at the reception for the room number of the famous wrestler.

The man smiled. "Mr. Zangief is staying in room number 202... 89th floor! I'm afraid you'll have to use the stairs, though... Our elevator is out of order."

Makoto grimaced. The 89th floor...? She didn't even know there were buildings that tall in Juuban...

Anyways, she shrugged it off. It was only this once, and she certainly felt fit enough to climb a few stairs.

On the 12th floor, she still felt pretty confident.

On the 33rd floor, she started to sweat, but still, she was training to be a martial artist... she should be able to endure something like this.

On the 67th floor, she was panting heavily and leaned against a door frame... perhaps she had overestimated her own endurance...

When she finally reached the 89th floor, she collapsed to the ground and felt like she wouldn't make it any further...

Still, after a few moments, she managed to gather herself, stood up from the ground and knocked on the door. Still, her knees felt slightly wobbly.

However, when staring up at the gruff visage of the gigantic Zangief, she, the tallest Senshi of them all, began to feel unsure of her position.

'Strange,' Zangief muttered. 'The uniforms of the Japanese chambermaids are looking stranger and stranger every time I'm in Japan...'

"What's the matter?" he asked in his gruff voice. "I didn't order any room service..."

"What? Oh no, I'm not a chambermaid... I'm here because of that pig. Um... could I please have it?"

Normally, Makoto would have said something more intelligent. But the powerful presence of this man overwhelmed her.

'Aha!' Zangief thought. 'Not a chambermaid, but a thief... Well, I know one way to get rid of thieves...'

He grinned. "Sure! Come this way please..."

"Um, thank you very much. You know, this pig... Hey! Where are you leading me? That's not the pig, that's the window."

"Won't you take a look outside?" Zangief asked. "It's such a beautiful day today..." And he grabbed Makoto and effortlessly hurled her outside.

"YOU CAN'T DO THAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat..."

Zangief nodded with satisfaction as he watched the female thief plummeting down from the 89th floor.

A small part of his brain wondered if the girl would be okay after that drop...

But then he shrugged. Back at home, he did it with all bothersome trouble makers that came into his home... And every time he had hurled them out of his little (one-storied) house, they weren't hurt that badly either...

----

"I believe I can fly..." Makoto muttered weakly as she watched the approaching ground...

She felt as if her fall from the 89th floor had already lasted several hours... she was still dropping like a rock, and it looked like at least half of the way was still ahead of her.

She sent a quick prayer towards heaven: "Oh kami, please don't let me land on the hard pavement..."

Makoto didn't land on the hard pavement.

CLONG!!

She landed on the hard traffic light standing next to the hotel building.

"Thank you VERY much, Kami..." she growled. "Ow... my head..."

----

Somewhere near heaven, a certain, green-skinned Namekian rubbed his ears. "I have the feeling as if someone is talking to me..." Dende murmured. "My ears are ringing..."

Mr. Popo shrugged. "Must have been your imagination..."

----

Makoto winced while Rei was bending her limbs back into position.

"That man... OW!" (crack) "That man can't be reasoned with... he's all brawns and no brains. I don't think we... OW!" (crack) "Can convince him into giving the daimon to us..."

"Well, maybe he just took you by surprise," Rei muttered. (crack) "OW!"

"If we go together, we just may have a chance of getting that pig."

(crack) "OOOOOOWWW! OWOWOW!"

Rei grinned and stepped back. "There, as good as new..."

Makoto grimaced and stood up. Her limbs were still hurting... but at least they were bending as they're supposed to.

Rei grimly looked at the hotel. "So, this time, we're both going up there... together!"

Makoto blanched. "Up there? AGAIN? Rei, you don't understand... this guy's room is on the 89TH FLOOR!"

"Doesn't matter!" Rei firmly said. "Don't forget who we are! We're the Sailor Senshi... and a good Senshi never gives up!"

----

On the 57th floor...

"(pant, pant...) You were saying, Rei?"

Rei panted heavily as she leaned against the wall. "Well... I suppose it's a long way up, but... we have to do this!"

----

89th floor...

After catching their breath (which took them about 15 minutes), the two Senshi approached the door to Zangief's room.

Mars tried opening the door. "Good, he didn't lock it... We can go in!"

Jupiter peered inside the room. "It's pretty dark in here..."

Rei shrugged. "Well, perhaps he just went to bed... it's gotten pretty late anyway. I mean, if you consider the time I had to wait while you went up here, the time we took when going up here together, not to forget the time of your long drop..."

"Okay, okay," the pony-tailed Senshi grumbled. "I got it..."

On tiptoes, they went into the dark room. Rei considered making some light with her fire powers, but she didn't want to risk waking the Russian wrestler.

"Do you see her?" Makoto whispered.

"I don't know..." Rei whispered back. "I don't see anything... but I can feel something round... Perhaps the lock of her cage?"

"Well, try opening it, then," Makoto urged her fellow Senshi.

"Okay... here we go..."

Rei turned around the strange, round knob...

"GOOOOAAAAAAALL! GOAL! GOAL! The Nankatsu High soccer team under Captain Tsubasa Ozora is incredible! The Juuban Strikers didn't stand a chance when Tsubasa himself approached the goalie and scored his third goal this day..."

The lights went on. "What's going on here?" Zangief's gruff voice bellowed.

Mars grimaced... the knob she had turned around was the knob of the radio.

Jupiter smiled weakly. "H-hi there..."

Zangief frowned. "You again? Perhaps you need some more fresh air... and your friend as well!"

He grabbed them. "Hey!" "Lemme GO!"

He smirked. "Out you go!"

----

Rei whined as she plummeted down the 89 stories of the hotel. "Makoto... will it hurt much?"

The tall Senshi shrugged. "You know what? You'll get used to it..."

Some time later, the long drop of the two Senshi was over.

"My spine..." Jupiter whined out of the impact crater.

Mars gasped. "GAH! Are we in hell?"

Makoto shook her head. "No, the traffic lights are just flashing red..."

The two of them crawled out of the hole. "We have to... try again..." Rei groaned. "A good Senshi... never gives up!"

"You can talk..." Makoto groaned as she tried twisting her spine back to normal.

----

44th floor...

"You know what? I think it's getting easier with the time..." Rei said during her panting.

"Shut up..." Makoto grumbled.

Half an hour later, they once again were back inside the dark hotel room of the Russian wrestler.

"Perhaps we should try calling for the pig-girl?" Makoto suggested. "Maybe we can find her quicker that way?"

"You wanna wake that brute again?" Rei hissed. "No way!"

After searching through the darkness, Makoto felt something. "Hey, Mars..." she whispered. "Here's something else... feels like a round padlock, but it's on the other side of the room, so it can't be the radio."

"Okay, let's hope you're right..."

Makoto turned around the knob... and everything stayed quiet. Both of them sighed in relief... no radio this time.

"Hmmm..." Makoto murmured. "This is strange... I turn and turn the knob around, but I can't find the keyhole... strange padlock..."

"Perhaps it isn't a padlock after all," Rei said.

"Maybe... hey, could you make a tiny flame? I need some light..."

Rei nodded. "Okay, here you go..."

Calling upon her Mars powers, Rei summoned a flame similar to her Fire Soul, only much smaller... about as small as the flame of a match...

BOOOOOOOOOOMMM!

"WHAAAAAAAHH!" Zangief screamed as he jumped out of bed... and stared at the ruined walls and furniture. "W-what the... You're TERRORISTS?"

"I DON'T BELIEVE IT!" Rei yelled as she peeled herself off the wall, where the force of the explosion had thrown her. "YOU TURNED ON THE GAS STOVE!"

Makoto stared out of some rubble. "Heh, heh... sorry?"

----

In the impact crater in front of the hotel, Makoto's face was pressed against the cold surface of the traffic light, which has been drilled into the earth...

"You still wanna try again?" she asked after spitting out some dirt.

"Of... course..." Rei mumbled. "A good Senshi... never gives up..."

The pony-tailed girl groaned. "I hate you..."

----

"You know what...?" Rei weakly moaned after she and Makoto had been smashed into the pavement for the 7th time.

"What...?" Makoto replied with a groan.

"You're right... this pig just isn't worth the trouble. Let's head back and tell the others it got turned into pork roast..."

"Your first good idea today..." Makoto said.

They climbed out of the impact crater... and blinked in surprise, as a cute pig-girl stretched out her hand to help them out of the hole.

"Are you okay?" Akari asked in a worried tone of voice. "You know, you don't look too well..."

"How'd you escape?" Makoto asked in a baffled tone of voice, totally forgetting about her injuries.

"Well, at first, I've been pretty scared when that huge man carried me off to his room... But then, we talked with each other and I managed to convince him to let me go." She smiled. "We played a little game of Poker and he offered me a bowl of hot borscht. In the end, he said he was genuinely sorry for locking me up and offered me a ticket for his next wrestling match. I guess he was a nice and decent man after all."

"Decent man..." Rei grumbled. "I can hardly feel my spine anymore..."

"Well, anyway... could you now come with us? We need to get you back to the Zoo."

Akari looked surprised. "Oh... Really? Oh, that's okay, I guess... But it was a nice trip. I hope the others had as much fun as I did..."

While leading the pig-girl back to the Tomoe house, Akari showed that she was stronger than one would believe and helped the limping Senshi. While Jupiter was leaning on her left shoulder, Mars was leaning on her right... and it didn't seem to bother her the slightest.

"Hey Mars..." Jupiter suddenly called. "You've got the doctor's list, right? So, what are her special powers? I'm kinda curious after all we went through..."

Mars looked at the list. "According to this list, certain parts of the animal's anatomy might be transferred to any person that touches the daimon's skin..."

The Senshis of fire and lightning looked at each other in worry and gulped. Quickly, they searched for certain parts that should belong to a pig instead to a fuku-clad defender of the Earth, while Akari was watching them in confusion.

"Well, everything seems to be fine..." Rei sighed in relief.

Makoto snickered. "Hey, just imagine how stupid you'd look with a pig's snout."

"Haha, very funny..." Rei chuckled.

Neither of them noticed the curly little tails that were sneaking out from under their short Sailor skirts...


	6. The Monkey

"I hope the others had more luck than us..." Setsuna groaned while she and Hotaru were walking through the park. "We've been searching for such a long time now, and not a single animal daimon has shown up..."

"I heard that one of the animals that broke out of the Zoo was a monkey," Hotaru pointed out. "If this monkey was possessed by a daimon egg, it should be at a place where it can easily climb trees... so maybe we can find it here in the park."

"Well, I hope you're right..."

They didn't notice, but every single of their movements was being watched by a certain police officer who was hiding behind a nearby tree.

"The eye of the law sees everything," Leon grumbled. "Soon enough, I'll catch you red-handed, Sailor Senshi... and then we'll see who has the last laugh!"

What HE didn't notice was the big, furry arm that came out of the branches behind him...

But he noticed it as soon as the muscular arm grabbed his legs with a firm grip... and pulled him upwards.

"YAH!" Leon shouted in surprise, as he dangled in front of the humanoid monkey... who was easily two meters tall. "What the... what's this? Monkey business?"

Akane gave him a sly grin. "Ready for a trip to tooth loose city?" she chuckled, pulled back her right fist, wound it up for a mighty punch... and smacked the unfortunate police officer right in the kisser!

"WHAT DID I DO TO DESERVE THIIIS?" the low-orbit missile Leon shouted as he flew southwards.

Akane chuckled as she swiftly climbed to the very top of the tree. "Stupid man..." she grinned. "They're all the same..."

And then she continued to jump from tree to tree, all the while looking for male humans she could pound.

----

"According to my daddy's notes, this daimon has the uncontrollable ability of growing... Once it has infected an animal, it will grow several inches every time it's turning angry..."

Setsuna had a bad feeling about this. "Well, then let's hope we find it soon... or else Tokyo will have its very own version of King Kong."

----

After being punched in the face by an overgrown, humanoid monkey-girl, flying through half of the Juuban district and impacting with a solid brick wall, officer Leon McNichol couldn't do much more than just lying on the ground for a long time, thinking about life and its meaning...

After some time, his female partner came running. "Leon, I... What the heck? Leon, are you drunk? I'd hate to report this to the chief, you know..."

Slowly, Leon's senses came back to him. "Ow... ow..." he muttered. "Stupid monkey-girl..."

Nene gritted her teeth. "WHAT DID YOU CALL ME??"

"No, not you..." Leon babbled almost unintelligibly. "It was a big, hairy monkey... up in the tree..."

Sadly, the only words Nene could understand were 'big', 'hairy', 'monkey' and 'tree'.

WHAM! "Don't EVER call me..." WHAM! "A hairy monkey..." WHAM! "AGAIN!!" WHAM!

As Nene dropped her mallet, Leon just twitched and stared up to the sky. Could this day get any worse?

----

"Hotaru-chan, what are you thinking about?"

Hotaru pondered. "I dunno, Setsuna-mama... I just wondered why you don't use your powers to let us go back in time before the animals get possessed by the daimon eggs."

Setsuna shook her head. "Hotaru, Hotaru... you still have a lot to learn about a Senshi's responsibilities... ESPECIALLY about those of my functions as the Guardian of Time."

"Well, what's your plan?" the cute Senshi of Destruction asked curiously.

Setsuna smiled down at her. "Watch closely and learn, Hotaru-chan..."

----

Hotaru stuck her head out of the bush in which she was hiding... and face-faulted when she realized what Setsuna's ingenious plan consisted of.

Sailor Pluto smirked as she looked down at the lonely banana lying on the pavement. Behind the corner of a house, she waited with her trusty Garnet Rod.

"I'm so clever..." she chuckled. "Every monkey loves bananas. And once our furry friend comes to pick it up, a swift bonk on her head should make her fall asleep..."

She waited for several minutes... and indeed, the monkey came.

But things didn't quite work out as the Senshi of Time had predicted.

Setsuna noticed that something was amiss as soon as her feet left the ground. Confused, she turned her head... and looked right into the angry face of a 3-meter-monkey-daimon.

"I don't like it if someone plans to knock me out..." Akane grumbled dangerously while lifting Setsuna up into the air by her rod.

Setsuna smiled innocently. "Heh, heh... sorry?"

----

Hotaru looked up at the lamp post from which Setsuna was dangling, bound to it with her very own Garnet Rod, which was wrapped nicely around her waist.

"I didn't know anyone would be strong enough to bend your rod this way..." Hotaru muttered.

"Don't just stand there!" Setsuna said in irritation. "Get me down!"

----

Misae Nohara grimaced as she saw the slimy little toad sitting on the window sill. "Shin-chan... did you bring animals home again?" she muttered. "If they only weren't that... slimy all the time."

She went downstairs into the living room, where her husband was sitting and reading the newspaper. "Hiroshi, there's a disgusting little animal sitting on the window sill upstairs... get rid of it!"

Hiroshi Nohara sighed as he put away the newspaper and got up from his comfortable sofa. "Yes, dear..."

He grabbed a broom and went up into the bedroom. He raised his cleaning tool to sweep whatever little critter Shin-chan had brought into the household this time out of the window... when he stared directly into two big, enormous eyes... bigger than his wife's teacup saucers.

Akane growled dangerously. "Man..."

And while Hiroshi screamed like a little girl, Shin-chan stuck his head into his parents' bedroom in awe. "Cooooool..." he muttered. "Dad, can I keep her?"

----

Setsuna and Hotaru stood in front of the house and watched as the titanic figure of Akane tried snatching the husband of the family out of the window.

"You know..." Setsuna muttered while clutching her twisted rod. "She somehow looks like someone has inflated her..."

Somehow, this remark gave Hotaru an idea... "Wait here, Setsuna-mama," she called out as she ran towards the towering monkey.

"Hotaru!" Setsuna shouted. "What are you doing? She'll trample you! Come back here!"

But the second-youngest Senshi didn't listen. She approached Akane's backside, drew her Silence Glaive, looked closely at the monkey-girl's butt that was hovering above her head, and took aim...

Suddenly, Akane felt like looking down... And when she saw what the little girl with the purple hair was up to, she sweated. "DON'T YOU DARE!!" she yelled.

Saturn smirked and drew back her weapon...

Akane gulped. "Oh nooo..."

Saturn grinned widely. "Oooooh yeeeesss..."

And she poked her glaive right into the left butt cheek of the titanic daimon.

PFFFFSSSSSSSSSSSSSHHHHH...

Akane pouted as she shrunk down to doll-size. "Why me..." she whined.

Hotaru effortlessly picked up the tiny monkey-girl and carried her over to where Pluto was waiting.

"See?" she asked the stunned Senshi of Time and held up the struggling Akane. "Easy as pie."


	7. The Cow

"Well, the chicken's back in the coop," Minako said while looking over Ami's shoulders. "What's next?"

"A rather interesting case..." Ami exclaimed. "A daimon that is able to float... but, she was merely an unfinished prototype, so she can't control this ability very well. But, every now and then, she regains her old weight... and plummets down to the ground. Strangely, a mysterious factor of luck will make sure that she will never get hurt... It looks like Germatoid had planned to use this 'Luck Factor' with all of his future daimons, had this one been a success."

"Over there!" Minako suddenly called. "That cow-girl... you think she is the one?"

"Might be," Ami replied. "She doesn't look too intimidating, does she? Perhaps we could just talk to her..."

"Are you kidding?" Minako asked. "We would miss a valuable chance of capturing her. What if she takes off, all of a sudden?"

She grinned. "Don't worry, as the captain of our school's volleyball team, my specialty is the Grand Interception Dive... Just watch me!"

And she ran towards the cow-daimon, who was standing nearby with her back turned towards the two Senshi.

"Oh my..." Kasumi murmured. "I believe it's starting again..." And then, she just floated up into the sky.

Minako missed her... and fell flat on her face.

"Damn..." she grumbled as she looked after the floating form of the cow-girl. "I missed her."

Ami had to chuckle. "Well, that's the risk when using the 'Grand Interception Dive', huh?"

"No worries," Minako shouted as she jumped back to her feet. "Sailor Venus is prepared for anything."

She grinned. "I guess I'll just catch her the old-fashioned way, just like in the good ol' days of the Wild West..."

And she aimed for the hovering daimon. "Venus Love-Me Chain!"

Her golden chain wrapped itself around the surprised Kasumi's waist, and she started pulling downwards.

"Oh moo..." Kasumi murmured. "That girl is so helpful... but I'm afraid that won't help much."

Minako realized her plan wasn't quite working as she had planned as soon as her feet left the ground.

"Amazing!" Ami gasped. "It looks like the daimon's body is so light while floating that it can actually pull heavy objects off the ground..."

"Spare me the lecture," Venus whined while flailing around with her legs. "Help meee!"

Mercury quickly jumped over to grab her team mates legs, but she was already out of range.

Minako grimaced as she was carried along the apartment buildings of Juuban, while dangling down from the floating cow-girl's waist. "This never happened to me when I played with my kite as a kid..."

"I'm terribly sorry this had to happen," Kasumi called down. "Perhaps you should just let go of your chain?"

"Are you nuts?" Minako yelped. "I'll break all my bones if I fall down from here!"

Suddenly, Minako realized that their speed had increased. "Hey! Slow down there!"

"Sorry, I can't," Kasumi apologized. "I have to fly where the wind blows me..."

"I always wanted to try paragliding, but not like thiiis!"

Then she noticed an approaching house wall. She yelped and closed her eyes, as she braced herself for the impact...

----

Kazu and his friend Kenta were sitting on the couch within his parent's apartment, in front of the TV. Each of them was holding a pair of weird-looking glasses.

"They say those 3D glasses make it look like the pictures are jumping right out of the TV screen," Kenta said with excitement. "I can't wait to try them out..."

"Here," Kazu smiled and held up a DVD. "The newest Sailor V movie - the perfect opportunity to give them a test run."

Kenta grinned. "Well, what are we waiting for?"

They put the small disc into the DVD player and put on the 3D glasses. Afterwards, they tensely waited for the spectacular effects...

"YAAAAAAAAH!" Minako yelled, as she was not only hurled through the window of the apartment, but also right through the massive TV set that was in her way.

Kazu and Kenta yelped in surprise as they got covered with a shower of glass, metal shards and electric sparks.

"My... my parent's TV..." Kazu stuttered as he stood up from the floor. "They'll kill me for this..." He looked down at the 3D glasses in his hands and angrily threw them across the room. "Stupid special effects!"

Kenta's glasses fogged up as he felt the warm weight of the real Sailor Venus upon his lap. "Wow..." he murmured happily. "The real Sailor V... in the flesh..." And his hands started groping blindly.

SMACK!

"Keep your hands to yourself, you little creep!" Minako yelled.

----

"Damn," Venus cursed. "Not only was I groped by a hormonal pre-teenager and was threatened with lawsuit in case I didn't sign their autographs, no, that blasted cow-girl got away."

"Calm down, Venus," Mercury said. "I'm trying to track her energy signature down with my Mercury Computer... We should be able to get after her in no time."

"And if we find her, then what? Does your super-genius brain have a solution for this? How are we supposed to get her back to the ground? I wouldn't want to shoot someone down who seemed so polite, even if she's a daimon, even if I dangled down from her waist, several meters over the ground..."

"There! I got her!" Mercury shouted. "She's heading for the airport!"

"Well, that's where she belongs..." Minako grumbled. "Okay, I'm ready... Shall we go?"

----

Inside the control tower of Tokyo Airport sat a tired man who wished his shift was already over, so he could go home and help his family with the Christmas preparations...

In a bored tone of voice, he watched over the maneuvering area.

"This is control tower..." he grumbled into his microphone. "A small two-seated sports aeroplane just started, on schedule."

Several minutes later...

"This is control tower. A black-and-white cow-girl just started, not scheduled."

Silence.

After several seconds, the man shook his head. "Wait a minute..."

"Control Tower..." his superior's voice came out of the speaker. "Would you be so kind and repeat that? HAVE YOU GONE NUTS, MAN?"

"I... guess I really need that vacation..." the air controller groaned and massaged his temples.

----

"Well, there she goes..." Venus sighed. "And now? You wanna fly after her, Mercury?"

The blue-haired genius Senshi looked around. Then she pointed at a small sports airplane that was standing nearby. "We'll take that one!"

"Wait a minute..." Minako stuttered. "Can you fly?"

"I took several lessons during the summer holidays," Ami smiled. "I may not be old enough, but... my uncle allowed me to use his own little plane."

Minako looked at her friend with new-found respect. "Ami, I have to say: You're full of surprises."

The pilot of the small airplane had just planned to climb in, when the two Senshi approached him.

"Stop!" Venus shouted. "Sailor Senshi! Is this baby all filled up?"

"Um... yeah, I've just filled the tank," the pilot explained. "But why..."

"We have to confiscate it for a greater good," Minako explained. "Sorry, pal... But we'll try to do our best and bring it back safely."

She grinned at her fellow Senshi. "Mercury, let's get in!"

"Now just wait a second there..." the man wanted to protest, but Minako stopped him with her palm.

"Look, do you see this fuku?"

"Well, yes, but..."

"And what does it make me?"

"Uh..." The man scratched his head and expected a catch question. "A Senshi?"

"Righto!" Venus nodded. "And that means we're the defenders of this city and have every right to confiscate whatever we need to protect loyal citizens like you from evil daimons, youmas, tentacle demons and door-to-door-salesmen. Understood?"

The man sighed. "Clearly, ma'am..."

Venus smiled. Victory! "Good! Now please, let us do our job!"

She climbed to Ami into the cockpit.

"Door-to-door-salesmen?" Ami asked and raised an eyebrow.

"You don't know how tedious they can be..." her blonde friend grumbled. "Especially on Saturday, when I just want to sleep in..."

She watched how the clever girl carefully flicked on several switches on the airplane's instrument panel... and was impressed. "So, you can bring us up to that cow, right?"

"Yes, I think so," Ami nodded. "Let's see..." She closed the cockpit and grabbed the joystick. "Yes, that should do it."

----

A little later, the small Senshi plane was soaring through the skies, hot on the tail of a certain, black-and-white spotted daimon...

"There she is!" Minako shouted and gestured upwards. "Ami, fly as close as you can!"

"I'll try..." came the nervous response. Ami had wanted to reassure Minako, so she said she had no problems... But actually, she was still a newbie, as not many girls her age were normally sitting at the controls of an airplane.

But still, this couldn't be harder than using a PC, could it?

"Oh my..." Kasumi said as she saw the airplane coming in her direction. "They came all this way just to get me down? How considerate of them..."

Just then, a stiff breeze came from her right and blew her around, until she floated directly over the small airplane.

"Oh no..." the cow-girl muttered. "Not now..."

And then, she dropped down from the sky like a rock.

The two Senshi in the airplane's cockpit yelped as suddenly, the heavy body of the daimon came crashing down on top of their flying vehicle. The unusual weight made controlling the plane very difficult, and poor Ami had a hard time preventing the plane from crashing.

"Mayday! Mayday!" Minako yelled. "Two Senshi in distress in the air!"

"Mina-chan, stop flailing around... Oh no!"

Minako gulped. "Uh-oh... 'Oh no' is never good news, especially not in an airplane..."

Ami grinned nervously... and held up her steering tool. "I just broke the joystick..."

Mercury and Venus looked at each other, then they looked out of the cockpit, as their plane suddenly tilted... and then plummeted down to the ground at an astounding velocity.

"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!"

CRASH! CLONK! BANG! CRAAAAASH!

After bouncing off the airport's maneuvering area multiple times, the sports machine came to a crashing stop just in front of the control tower.

While in the cockpit, Ami and Minako looked like they were ready to pass out, Kasumi unsteadily came climbing down from the crashed plane.

"Oh my... Whew, lucky… I don't seem to be hurt."

"I guess the 'Lucky Factor' strikes again..." Ami mumbled.

"I wish we had something similar..." Minako groaned. "Ow... my head..."


	8. The Camel

"On with the show..." Chibiusa sighed in defeat after the trio came back from delivering the bat-girl to Dr. Tomoe. "What's next?"

"A daimon with the ability to absorb water," Mamoru explained while reading the instructions. "She can absorb more water than one would imagine, but due to a research error, most of this water vanishes inside her body. Which means she's always thirsty."

"Just like our bat?" Usagi wondered.

"Not exactly," Mamoru said. "The bat is an alcohol addictive, but this one has to drink all the time. Originally, she was supposed to use the absorbed water in a destructive water attack, but she no longer has this option."

"Well, then we should go sea if she's at the see," Chibiusa exclaimed. "Um, you know what I mean..."

"Maybe we can set up another trap?" Usagi grinned. "Just like with that bat-girl."

"Oh kami, please no," Mamoru groaned. "Usako, you remember what happened then, right?"

"Yeah, we nearly got arrested and I had to bust us out," Chibiusa grumbled.

"Well, excuuuse me..." Usagi huffed. "But do you have a better idea?"

"How about: You just surrender without doing anything and follow me to the police station?"

"Well, that would be a possibility, but..." Usagi blinked. "Wait a minute..." She turned around... and saw the smirking face of Leon behind her.

"Well, crud..." she sighed as the police officer pulled out his handcuffs.

"You know the procedure," Leon said. "Your hands behind your backs, please..."

----

"Chief Todo! I've got them now! The criminals I've been after: They won't escape me this time!"

Todo turned around... and groaned when he saw what his subordinate had brought him this time.

"Well done, officer," he said sarcastically. "But you might give those lovely ladies something to wear... we don't want your mannequins to catch a cold, right?"

In bewilderment, Leon stared from one plastic mannequin he was holding to another.

"But... How...? Why...? When...?"

----

Several minutes later, he came stumbling out of the chief's office, his right hand pressed to his swollen cheek.

"Ow, ow... man, he can deal out blows... He should consider starting a boxing career..."

----

"Okay, forget about the trap," Usagi grumbled. "But how should we find her otherwise?"

"We just have to keep on searching..." Mamoru sighed.

They continued looking around the neighborhood, asking various pedestrians if they saw anything, until Sailor Moon addressed a friendly-looking policeman.

"Excuse me, sir, but did you see by any chance a daimon that has absorbed much water?"

"I'm sorry..." the man groaned as he held his swollen cheek. "For the last few minutes, the only thing I've seen were stars..."

Usagi nodded, and they both continued on their way...

But then, they both stopped.

"Waaait a minute..." Leon muttered and turned around. "YOU?"

"Great job, meatball head!" Chibiusa bickered. "Did you have to ask that one?"

"Well, excuuuse me for making a mistake," Usagi bickered back.

"No time to argue, let's get out of here," Mamoru shouted as Leon was already running after them.

"Stop! You're under arrest!" He chased them into the park, where he lost them.

"Where can they be?" he muttered, looking around the wide area around the fountain. "Hmmm..."

He didn't see the tip of the snorkel that was breaching through the surface of the water inside the fountain's basin...

----

Ukyo felt dried up. It has only been a few minutes after her last drink, but she once again felt thirsty.

"What I would give for a nice glass of water... or some soda... or even some sake... Anything, as long as you can drink it."

Her gaze fell on the big fountain standing in the middle of the park. She grinned. "Well, better than nothing, I suppose..."

The camel-girl walked up to the edge of the basin and began drinking with mighty gulps.

And a few moments later, the whole basin was empty.

Chibiusa, who was crouching on the bottom of the basin, blinked in surprise and took the Luna-P snorkel out of her mouth. "What the..."

Leon heard her voice, turned around and saw the young Senshi sitting in the middle of the basin. He grinned. "Well, at least I got one of you."

"Crap!" Chibiusa cursed. "And here I thought this would be the perfect hiding place..."

Ukyo burped. "That was good... but I still need some more."

----

"I don't believe this..." Tuxedo Kamen muttered as a wet Chibimoon told him how she had to escape from Leon yet again. "How can we make it clear that we aren't the bad guys?"

"Well, he certainly doesn't look like a guy that doesn't give up that easily," Sailor Moon sighed.

"No kidding," Chibimoon grumbled.

Just then, they could see two familiar faces heading their way.

"Hey, Uranus, Neptune!" Chibimoon waved. "Got any luck yet?"

"Well, you could say that..." Neptune replied. "Somehow, I think this one belongs to those we have to find, right?"

The big and the small Moon Senshi just stared while Tuxedo Kamen just decided that the past few days have been crazy enough, so something like that was expected.

Clinging to Michiru's side was none other than the camel-girl Ukyo, nuzzling her shoulder with her wet nose.

"Michan..." she dreamily mumbled. "I'll never leave your side again..."

"Would you just cut it out?" Uranus grumbled in irritation. In her eyes, she was the only one that was allowed to do that.

"How... how did that happen?" Sailor Moon asked.

Neptune sighed. "Well, she saw how I used a water attack... and all of a sudden, she started worshipping me."

"Of course I did," Ukyo grinned. "How could I not worship a goddess that is able to produce life-saving water out of nothing? Uh-oh... Michan, I'm afraid I'm starting to get dry again... Um, could you please...?"

"Yeah, yeah, sure..." the Senshi of water murmured. "Here ya go!" She raised her hand, and a miniature Deep Submerge descended upon the thirsty camel.

"Aaaaaah..." Ukyo sighed. "How refreshing... So, I heard you've been gathering my other friends as well, huh? So, who did you get so far?"

"Well, we managed to catch a bat-girl," Usagi explained. "She called herself Nabiki... And Rei and Makoto informed me they got the pig-girl called Akari... also, they asked me to take care of a 'certain problem' they had. I don't really understand what they meant, but they said something about 'curly tails'..."

"Well, we got a message from Mercury and Venus," Uranus said. "They have been able to subdue the cow and the chicken. Also, Neptune and I have caught the dog-daimon."

"Don't remind me of that..." Michiru grumbled. "I can still feel the bump on my head."

"Hey," Uranus defended herself. "I said I was sorry, right?"

"Well, looks like we're coming to an end," Tuxedo Kamen realized. "I suppose Pluto and Hotaru managed to catch one or two daimons as well, so that means only one or two are left."

"Can you tell us which of your friends we left out, please?" Usagi asked Ukyo.

"Let's see... Akane I believe must have been captured by now... or else we would be easily able to see her towering over the buildings... And the only other ones you missed out were Kodachi and Ranko, our two wildcats."

Uranus looked at the doctor's list. "According to this list, there should be one daimon that is able to store massive amounts of air within her lungs and exhale it forcefully, like a massive blast."

"Sounds similar to your own powers, Ukyo," Michiru pointed out.

The camel-girl nodded. "Yeah, but in her case, it's actually working. Kodachi often has to sneeze because of that, and I pity everyone who's standing in front of her... Ranko, well she is the strongest fighter of us all, she hasn't got any special powers except for her unusual strength and agility."

"Sounds like she will be a formidable opponent," Chibimoon supposed.

"Maybe, but Ranchan has always been a very playful kitty. Even back when she had been a tiger cub, she always wanted to play or wrestle with her siblings. And since we've turned into this, the only thing she thinks about is finding a good opponent to spar."

Suddenly, Sailor Moon's communicator beeped. "Um, just a moment... Yes, Moon here?"

"Usagi!" Pluto's voice came out of the device. "We managed to catch the monkey-girl, but she insists we let her search for her friend 'Ranko'. I believe she means the tiger-girl."

"Yes, our recent captive just said the same," Usagi nodded. "But where can she be?"

"We just watched a special report on TV. I suppose this kitty is attracted to areas where she can find many strong fighters, especially martial artists. And it looks like she found a part of town where there are many of those."

"And where is that?"

Setsuna sighed. "Usagi, prepare yourself for a big amount of collateral damage... we're going to Nerima."


	9. The Tiger and the Lion

Nodoka Saotome came home from the market, carrying her groceries. As Kasumi was very busy cleaning up the mess caused by the final battle between her son's fiancees, she agreed to do the shopping for her.

After reaching the street in which the Tendo Dojo was situated, a reddish blur suddenly jumped past her, startling her immensely.

"Nnrrraaaoooowww..."

Nodoka stared up at the... girl that was crouching on the wall of the neighbor's garden. "R... ranma?"

"Rrrowwlll..." the tiger-girl grumbled with a sneer. "Do I know you? You look strong."

Ranko then saw the katana which Nodoka always carried around with her. "You wanna fight?"

Nodoka sighed. "Oh Ranma, what happened to you? Did someone mess around with your Jusenkyo curse? And surely you remember your mother, right?"

Ranko tilted her head. "Mo... therrr...?"

Nodoka smiled. "Yes, your mother! Now, why don't you come down here and explain to me what happened?"

All of a sudden, the tiger-girl came jumping down from the wall and pounced on Nodoka with a fierce hug. "MOMMY!!"

Confused, Nodoka returned the hug. She certainly welcomed her son's affections, but... somehow, she got the feeling that he didn't really remember her. Oh kami, what if the Neko-ken had somehow combined with Ranma's curse...

"Um, why don't we just head back home? I'm sure Kasumi has some hot water for you."

Ranko just purred like a kitten and rubbed her cheeks against Nodoka's arm while clinging to her like an overgrown child.

"Rrrr... Mommy..."

"I seriously have to talk with those Amazons..." Nodoka murmured while leading her 'daughter' back to the dojo. "I heard they have used amnesia herbs and instant Jusenkyo water before, but this is going too far..."

----

At the Tendo Dojo...

"I'm home!" Nodoka called.

"Hello, Auntie," Kasumi replied from the kitchen. "Dinner will be ready shortly. Did you get everything?"

"Yes, it was no problem. Kasumi... can you tell me what happened to Ranma today?"

"Ranma? Oh, I believe he and Akane are sparring in the Dojo... She's still upset that he doesn't want to hit her, though..."

"In the dojo? All right, but what happened afterwards? I mean, there has to be a reason that he's looking like this. Did Shampoo-san come for a visit, maybe?"

"Shampoo? Oh no, everything was quiet today... Well, except for Akane's and Ranma's usual bickering. But that's just what fiancees do, right? By the way, what do you mean with 'looking like this', Auntie? Is something the matter?"

"You didn't know?" Nodoka asked in surprise. "I mean, just take a look at him..."

Kasumi looked out of the kitchen. "Yes? Where is he?"

"Huh?" Nodoka looked around. During her talk with Kasumi, the red-furred tiger-girl must have slipped away from her. "Ranma? Now where did he go?"

----

Inside of the dojo, the sounds of clashing fists and feet could be heard.

"C'mon, Akane," the pig-tailed boy mocked. "You call that a punch? You can do better, I'm sure. Or are you even trying?"

"Grrr..." his fiancee grumbled. "Dammit, STAND STILL! And take me seriously for once. Hit me! I'm an opponent like Ryoga, so treat me like one."

"Aw, as if you could stand a direct hit from me..."

"Ranmaaaaa... Oh, that's it! You BAKA!"

And she resorted to her usual way of beating Ranma: Pulling out good ol' Mr. Mallet. She swung it over her head...

Only to have her strike being intercepted by an orange blur.

Akane raised her tool and stared at the mallet head... or rather at it's remains: A shredded mess of splinters and wood flour.

"Mrrroowwl..." a well-known voice called out to her. "You're strong... but you better not hurt oniichan!"

Akane blanched. "O-oniichan? R-Ranma?" She looked back and forth between her still male fiance and his female, feline counterpart which was crouching on the floor and hissed at her.

Ranma, in the meantime, had seen enough. Cats were bad... His girl-curse was bad... But there was nothing worse than seeing his girl-side as a cat-girl, hissing menacingly in a feral state.

It was enough to make him freak.

"C-C-C-C-CAAAAAAAAAAATTTT!!" he yelled while running around in a panic. "CAAAAAAAAT!"

"Mrow?" Ranko tilted her head. She observed how this boy - which looked so much like her that she simply had to assume he was one of her brothers (back at the zoo, she had multiple siblings that have been sold to other zoos) - was running around in a state of panic. Perhaps he was just overjoyed to see her?

She grinned. That looked like fun. "MYAOW!" she shouted and pounced on her 'brother'. "Ranko wanna play too!"

Ranma was slammed backwards on the floor, pinned under a cat-girl Ranko that looked at him with a wide grin.

Ranma shivered even more. Those shiny teeth...

----

"Now I remember!" Tomoe snapped his fingers.

Luna and Artemis, who were doing some research at the doctor's computer, turned around to look at him. "What do you mean, doctor?" Luna asked.

"When I heard my Hotaru talking about Nerima, I had another flash of Germatoid's memories. And now I know why our friends' personalities here are so distinct... they are modelled after living humans."

"Really?" Pig-Akari asked as she looked over the doctor's shoulder. "Well, it's certainly nice to know that there's a human girl out there who could be my sister..."

"But why would Germatoid model his daimons after human girls?" Artemis wondered.

"It's Nerima," Luna pointed out. "In this vicinity, many strong martial artists are living. I suppose Germatoid wanted his daimon to be naturally strong, so he copied the appearances and behavior of several Nerima residents."

"Oh moo," Kasumi the cow pondered. "If that is the case, maybe we should think of new names, so we don't get confused with our originals."

"Bah, they might be the ones our current looks are copied from, but we are independent girls," the tiny Monkey-Akane grumbled from her position on the doctor's desk. "We've been living animals, even before we changed like this."

"Yeah, but we never had as much intelligence as this," Bat-Nabiki reminded her. "Now don't get upset again, or we'll have you rampaging through the city. I think new names are a good idea. You got some suggestions, doc?"

"Actually, I have," Tomoe nodded and quickly wrote something on a piece of paper. "Here, I made a list with your animal forms and your abilities, and I added some names for you that should be fitting..."

He scratched his head. "Although I believe I should change the name I wrote for you, Shampoo..."

"Why?" the duck-girl asked. "Is not nice?"

"Well, I basically combined the names of your human counterparts with your animal name... and I believe the name 'Duck-Poo' wouldn't be quite the proper name..."

"Well, how about 'Shamchan', then?" Akari suggested.

The duck-girl thought about it and nodded. "Shampoo... no, I mean, Shamchan likes it."

"Okay, let's have a look at that list..." Nabiki muttered and snatched it out of the doctor's hands.

Nabatty, vampire bat. Powers: Flight, Supersonic Waves and an alcoholic addiction.

Shamchan, duck. Powers: Produces eggs that change the behavior of whoever eats them.

Kasumoo, cow. Powers: Uncontrollable flight powers.

Pikari, pig. Powers: Can partly transform people's body parts into those of a pig.

Muttzusa, dog. Powers: Increased sneakiness and the ability to store items in a sub-dimensional pocket space. Also, a kleptomaniac like her original.

Apane, monkey. Powers: Grows every time she gets angry. Can be deflated by poking her with a pointy object.

Ukymel, camel. Powers: Steadily absorbs water and other kinds of liquid, has the non-working power of using this water as an attack.

Leodachi, lion. Powers: Steadily absorbs air and can use it as compressed air blasts for battling. Does so in form of sneezes, as she often has a cold.

Ranko, tiger. Powers: Increased strength and agility, but the most immature and playful of the bunch.

Pikari nodded. "Yes, very becoming... But why didn't you change Ranko's name?"

"Well, I did some research, and her original's name is 'Ranma Saotome'. I figured if he is a boy with a slightly different name, she can keep hers."

"Fine!" Nabatty handed back the sheet. "Now can we leave already? We have some friends to find."

"W-w-wait a minute!" Luna shouted. "We just managed to bring all of you back here. Why would you want to leave again?"

"Luna..." Kasumoo said carefully. "Ranko and Leodachi are the two strongest of us... except maybe for Apane. And while Ranko often doesn't know her own strength, Leodachi tends to act... violently, if something doesn't work out her way. And your Senshi friends might need some additional help."

"Fine then, but not all of you," Artemis sighed. "Kasumoo, you and Pikari are no fighters, so I suppose you should stay behind. Nabatty as well..."

"Hey, I CAN fight," the bat-girl protested. "I just have to be careful not to get drunk again."

"Well, the problem is that you're pouncing on every alcoholic beverage you see..." Apane muttered. Nabatty just glared at her.

Soft pounding came out of the bound trashcan behind them. "Hello? Can Little Azusa... I mean, can little Muttzusa come out now? I really don't wanna play hide and seek any more..."

The mooncats, scientist and animal-girls looked at each other.

"Um, should we let her out?" Pikari asked.

"Ah, just leave her where she is..." Nabatty smirked. "She'll just cause trouble..."

----

After Ranma had locked himself away in the closet, Nodoka and the Tendo sisters sat down in the living room to talk about... well, what they wanted to talk about had red-striped fur, a pigtail and was rubbing her head affectionally against her chosen mother's leg.

The fathers couldn't be involved in this, simply because they had accidentally angered Happosai a few days ago, and he was still chasing them throughout the country.

After a few uncomfortable moments of silence (except for the continued purring of a certain tiger-girl), Nabiki broke the silence by saying what virtually everyone in the room was wondering: "So... if this isn't Ranma, who is it? A Mirror Clone? A by-product by Jusenkyo water of the drowned twin? Or simply a female twin of Ranma we didn't know about and who was genetically altered?"

"I would like to know that as well," Nodoka sighed while petting the affectionate tiger-girl's head. "Say... Ranko."

"Mmmyes?" the girl in question asked when looking up.

"Can you tell us where are you from?"

Ranko smiled. "From the zoo." And then, she continued her rubbing and purring.

"I figured as much," Akane muttered. "But that doesn't answer the question why you look just like our Ranma."

"Don't knyyyoww why I look like this. One night, I suddenly woke up and looked like this. But I liked it. Before, I've been all alone, Mommy gone, brothers and sisters gone, Ranko all alone..."

Her ears drooped and the four females in the room couldn't help but feel sorry for the cute cat-girl.

But almost immediately, Ranko perked up. "But I'm much stronger now. Got out of cage and freed my friends. They're all like me now. Then I came here to search for Mommy and big brothers and sisters. And now..." Again, she rubbed herself against Nodoka's legs. "I found you... Pprrrrrr... Mommy..."

Akane leaned over to Nodoka's ear and whispered: "If she has been a normal, young tiger before, then something must have happened to make her change like this."

"I doubt the Amazons are involved," Nabiki said. "I mean, what advantage would they take of turning a tiger into a double of Ranma's female form?"

Kasumi then realized something. "Oh my... she said she freed her friends and that they changed like her... Does that mean there are other zoo animals turned into human-like beings out there?"

Nodoka returned her attention to the tiger-girl. "Ranko, dear... Can you please tell us more about your friends? Do they have names as well?"

Ranko nodded enthusiastically. "Surrrre. Let's see, there's Akane, Kasumi, Nabiki..."

Kasumi and Nabiki gasped while Nabiki looked like she was going to choke on the tofu she was nibbling on.

"Ucchan, Shampoo, Akari, and I guess you could say Azusa and Kodachi are my friends too... meow!"

"I think I'm getting a headache..." Nabiki murmured.

"I-is the monster gone?" Ranma's voice came out of the closet.

"Nyyaaah?" Ranko's head turned around. "Where are you, big brotherr...?"

"YAH!" The closet shut tightly.

----

Meanwhile, Shampoo (the real one) was on her way to the Tendo Dojo, to bring Ranma some of her delicious ramen for lunch. Was much better than risking her Airen to be poisoned by violent kitchen-destroyer's food.

When her bike came around the corner, she stopped. Didn't she know that girl in front of her?

"Ribbon-girl?"

The furry girl turned around. "You must have mistaken me with someone else, human peasant," the lioness growled. "I own no ribbons."

Shampoo scratched her head. "You fell into spring of drowned girl-holding-kitty?"

Leodachi tried to understand what the human girl meant by that.

"I do not know what you are prattling about," she finally said. "Now, leave. I have no time to waste for the likes of... aaah... aaaaaaahh... AAAAAAAAHHH..."

For some reason, Shampoo's sense of danger warned her that she was in an unsafe position. But she could not detect any danger... Ribbon-girl was busy sneezing, was she?

"AAAAAH-CHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!"

"GYAAAAAAH!" Shampoo yelled as the powerful air blast that came forth from the lion-girls muzzle blew her and her bike away. "Is too, too stormy here!"

Leodachi sniffed as she watched the strange girl soar away in the distance. Damn, she had to do something against this cold.

"Does anyone around here have a tissue?" she muttered.

----

It had started to snow. Nabatty was flying through the snowflakes while searching through the buildings of the neighborhood with her radar powers and yelling: "Yoohoo! Ranko! Come out, come out, wherever you are..."

The people of Nerima, upon seeing her, would stare for a few minutes, then shake their head and continue on with their daily work. It's Nerima. They have seen stranger things...

Apane (now a little taller than your average teddy-bear) was swinging from lamppost to lamppost. "Dammit..." she muttered. "Where can that baka-girl be?"

Ukymel and Shamchan, being the 'ground troops', were joining forces with the Senshi, looking in all side streets and asking pedestrians if they had seen anything particularly weird.

The residents shook their head. Nope, the didn't... at least not weirder than usual, or weirder than a group of fuku-clad superhero girls running around with half-animal-girls...

Shamchan, who was walking with Usagi and Rei, lost her patience. "Dammit, how longer is this taking? Shamchan wanna go home and sleep... her webbed feet are cold from snow."

"Now there, calm down," Rei tried to compose her. "We don't want the pavement to be littered with giant duck eggs, do we?"

Usagi giggled. "You should try eating one of her eggs, Rei-chan... maybe acting like a duck will help you with your temper."

Instantly, Rei glared fiercely at her leader. "AND JUST WHAT'S WRONG WITH MY TEMPER?"

"There, see?" Usagi sighed. "There you go again. Well, at least I managed to get rid of your little pig-tail... Or else your 'flames of anger' would have turned your butt into a rump steak..."

Rei fumed.

Suddenly, Shamchan's head turned around sharply.

"What's up?" Rei asked alarmed.

"Not sure..." the duck-girl replied. "I sense someone coming... And somehow, Shamchan is getting feeling of resentment..."

"I get that often when working with Usagi." Rei smirked.

"Rei, you're meeeaaaan."

Suddenly, with fluttering feathers, Shamchan leapt away. "Wait here."

"Hey! Come back here! Oh great, what's better than a hyperactive duck-girl?"

----

Mousse was on a delivery for the Nekohanten, wearing his glasses for once. He was troubled.

This morning, he had tried to ask his beautiful Shampoo for a date. After Cologne told him she was flattered, she suggested asking her great-granddaughter instead.

And after he compared her to a wrinkled monkey, he got a bop on the head.

Well, after putting on his glasses and asking Shampoo instead, the lavender-haired Amazon told him something like 'that's gonna be the day I'll manage to get rid of my curse and get a curse of girl-holding-duck instead'...

Of course there was no spring like that, but who was Mousse to know that? After asking her if he should get her a sample of that spring water, she booted him out of the window.

"Quack?"

Mousse stopped. That sounded... familiar.

He looked up and dropped his delivery boxes in surprise. "Oh, Shampoo... you made your promise come true and changed your Jusenkyo curse into one that would make us an even closer couple."

"Who are you?" the duck-girl asked him. "Shamchan know you?"

The nearly blind boy didn't listen. He spread his arms and ran towards his love. "Shampoo, I love you... URK!"

He was heading towards the right goal for once, but that didn't stop the real Shampoo from suddenly appearing out of nowhere, soaring through the air and hitting the Chinese boy in his stomach, which knocked him over.

"Ow... Shampoo's head hurts..." the Amazon grumbled while standing up. "Furry ribbon-girl really needs to take some medicine against that cold..."

Then, she took a closer look at the duck-girl standing close by.

"Who you?" they asked at the same time.

"I'm Shamchan," the duck-girl replied in the same time as her double said: "I'm Shampoo."

Shamchan grinned. "Oh, you are my original. Shamchan is pleased to meet you, but have to find Ranko now."

"What?" Shampoo asked. "Ranma?" She scowled. Was this... one of her rivals, in disguise? She didn't know what the Shampoo-Mousse costume was all about, but she wouldn't let spatula girl or violent girl or whoever this was let lay her hands on her Airen.

"You not leaving that fast," Shampoo growled while pulling out her bonboris.

"GWAH!" Shamchan quacked as she dodged a swipe of the weapons. "Don't scare me like this, or else... uh-oh, here it comes... q-q-q-quaaaaaaack!"

And while she was crouching down on the floor, Shampoo ran towards her to strike...

...and was hit right in the face with an egg that splattered all over her face.

Shampoo couldn't help but gulp a bit of the slimy substance down her throat...

"DEEP SUBMERGE!" Sailor Neptune shouted, as her water-based attack came flying and hit both Shampoo and Mousse, throwing them away from the duck-girl.

"Shamchan, are you all right?" she asked. "I couldn't see much, only that someone was going to attack you from behind... where are they?"

Shamchan looked around. "Don't know. Must have run away. Oh well, have to continue searching for Ranko anyway..."

In one corner of the street, a lavender-furred cat and a duck with glasses were crouching on the floor, in-between several delivery boxes and were flapping around their wings or front legs, respectively.

"Quack quack!" Mousse exclaimed nervously.

"Quack quack!" Neko-Shampoo replied while angrily glaring back at him.

----

"Sh-she won't b-b-bite me, will she?" Ranma asked with shaking knees while he slowly approached the red-striped cat-girl that was lying on the sofa and played with a ball of yarn Kasumi had given her.

"Not at all, Ranma," his mother assured him. "You just have to give Ranko a chance... Think about how happy she will be when she sees her 'brother'."

"R-r-right..." Ranma continued his approach towards Ranko, all the way mentally chanting: 'She won't bite me, she won't bite me, she's not a real cat...'

Ranko blinked as she saw the approaching form of her 'oniichan' Ranma. "Nyaow?"

Ranma, upon hearing that dreaded sound, almost turned around on his heel and ran away in the opposite direction. Only the cute smile on Ranko's face enabled him to hang on.

He smiled nervously and raised his hand. "H-hello there, R-ranko..."

Ranko beamed at him with a wide smile. "Rrrrowwlrrr! Hello, oniichan!"

'Those teeth, those teeth...' Ranma thought to himself, but somehow, upon hearing the word 'oniichan', his heart seemed to jump towards the pig-tailed tiger-girl.

Standing next to the sofa, he casually folded his hands behind his back and tried to make the impression that everything was fine.

"S-so, um... had any fish today?" Baka, he scolded himself. That was probably the most stupid thing to say.

But to his relief, Ranko began purring. "Nyaaah! Do you like them as much as I do, big brother? They're sooo tasty!" And she began licking her muzzle.

Ranma couldn't help but imagine that she wasn't imagining the fish in-between her teeth, but himself. Well, at least this was a good excuse to get away for a while. "Um... I guess I could go and fetch some, you wanna?"

"Ooooh pleaaase!"

Again with the kitty-cat eyes. But damn, they were effective.

The pig-tailed martial artist turned around... and faced Kasumi, who was handing him a tin of tuna fish. "Here you go, Ranma-kun. I got the impression Ranko-chan would love to eat some fish, so I prepared a little bit for her."

"Right... Thanks, Kasumi..."

The eldest Tendo sister smiled. "You're welcome!"

And after Ranma turned around and handed the tuna to his new 'sister', Ranko could not contain herself: She pounced upon the tuna and gobbled it all down, using just her hands and mouth.

Ranma relaxed visibly after realizing that she wasn't after him, but after the tuna.

"You know, I believe this is a good example of reversed psychology, Auntie," Akane whispered.

"I don't quite know if you can call it that, Akane-chan..." Nodoka whispered back. "But it seems to work."

After having finished her meal, Ranko licked her paws and afterwards, stared adoringly at her new brother.

Ranma gritted his teeth, expecting another of those 'glomps' he had developed a slight dislike for...

But instead, he found Ranko slinking over to him, rubbing his legs with her head, and purring.

Ranma's heart melted even more. How could he be afraid of a creature... no, girl... that looked sooo adorable like Ranko?

Still a little bit nervous, he stretched out his hand to scratch her behind the ears. This seemed to have the desired effect, as Ranko's purring increased in volume.

He smiled. "Glad you liked it... lil' sis."

Nodoka and the Tendo girls all went 'awwww' at the sweet scene before their eyes.

Well, Nabiki didn't, but you could kinda tell that she was moved.

----

"Akane Tendo or the pig-tailed girl... Akane Tendo or the pig-tailed girl..."

Whoever knew Tatewaki Kuno normally also knew about this strange mantra he was regularly chanting whenever he was confronted with a difficult decision. Particularly, when he was going to say or offer something to one of his two 'loves'.

They also knew that he should better be left alone in such a state of mind.

Kuno's hands were trembling. "Oh, I simply cannot decide! I MUST INVITE THEM BOTH FOR A DATE! Sasuke! The bouquets!"

Unfortunately for Sasuke, little ninja retainer of the house Kuno, he had not such a freedom of choice... As his young masters servant, he had to endure all of his moods.

"Here they are, Master Kuno," Sasuke said and carried two massive bouquets of orchids alongside his master, as they were approaching the Tendo Dojo.

"I still do not know where the domicile of the pig-tailed girl is located..." the delusional kendoist muttered to himself. "Still, she seems to visit the home of the Tendos quite often. Hopefully, I can meet my two beauties at once..."

Before he reached the main entrance of the premises, he heard some strange noises coming from the other side of the wall that surrounded the Tendo's home.

Were that villain Saotome and his gluttonish father sparring again?

"You know, you're pretty fast, Ranko... I've never had this much fun when fighting Pops."

"Nrrrooowwlll... You're prretty good, too, big brotherrr..."

Kuno blinked. That had been... the voice of his pig-tailed goddess... and that of Saotome.

"I knew it!" he proclaimed. "All the time, I heard rumors that Saotome and my lovely pig-tailed girl were supposed to be the same person. But I see it now: Those were nothing but lies!"

He looked towards the wall, then down at the pavement and finally towards his small servant.

"Sasuke, I need a lift."

Sasuke sighed. "Of course, Master Kuno..."

While the ninja crouched down on the ground, Kuno climbed on his servant's back and looked over the wall.

In the backyard of the Tendo home, he could see that fiend Saotome and the pig-tailed girl, jumping and dashing around the premises, while exchanging blows and kicks.

But wait a minute... why was the pig-tailed girl so... furry?

"SAOTOME!" the offspring of the house Kuno shouted. "You vile sorcerer! I knew it all the time! What spell did you put on my lovely, pig-tailed beauty?"

Ranma and Ranko interrupted their sparring and looked over to where Kuno was climbing over the wall. ("Sasuke, stop wiggling around! - "I'm sorry, master Kuno...")

Ranko looked at her new brother's face. "Who is that boy? A frriend of yours, big brother?"

"More like a pest..." Ranma grumbled. "Yo, Kuno! Whaddya want now?"

Kuno came stumbling down the wall, landed on his head, but instantly jumped back to his feet. "Saotome! You fiend! How dare you transform my red-haired beauty into such a lowly beast? True, she is as fierce as a tigress... just like the beauteous Akane Tendo... but such mockery of her loveliness cannot be allowed. Remove your spell from her this instant, you cur!"

Ranma looked at Kuno, then at Ranko and back at Kuno. "Um... I think you might have misunderstood something here, Kuno..."

Kuno pointed his bokken at Ranma. "I understand pretty well: Finally, you show your true face. But your back arts won't save you this time, Saotome! Now the justice of heaven will descend upon you!"

He raised his weapon and charged at Ranma. "HAVE AT THEEEE..."

Ranma prepared himself to fend off Kuno's standard opening as usual... but before he got the chance, a reddish blur jumped in front of him and lunged at the bokken with feral swipes.

SLICE! SLICE!

Kuno could only stare as his weapon fell apart in countless pieces... reduced to splinters by the claws of the tiger-girl that stood in front of him.

"Grrrrr... you wanna hurt oniichan, you have to deal with me."

"Oh my pig-tailed goddess... has the vile sorcerer corrupted your mind? fear not, for my love will free you of his brainwashing."

And he attempted to glomp the tiger-girl with all his might.

POW!

Ranko's fist slammed right into the kendoist's chest, and the force propelled him backwards, until he heavily slammed into the wall.

"That... didn't hurt..." Kuno groaned weakly, before collapsing to the ground.

Ranma shook his head. "Kuno... whenever will you learn?"

----

"My imbecile brother..." Kodachi Kuno cussed while jumping from rooftop to rooftop, trailing her trademark ribbon behind her. "Where did he take the bouquets of love I've prepared for my Ranma-darling? If he is not careful, the capsules with the sleeping gas will break open, and then it's wasted."

She stopped for a while on someone's balcony. "But, even if he did, it shall not hinder me from conquering my Ranma-sama this time."

She clasped her hands and gushed in what she thought to be a romantic manner. "Wait for me, my Ranma... your Black Rose is coming!"

And then she started laughing (and every Nerimian with common sense fled and covered his ears): "OH-HO-HO-HO-HO-HOOOOOO..."

"Hey, you!"

Kodachi stopped in mid-laugh and looked around. "What?"

"Down here!" the voice shouted. "You human upstart! How dare you impersonate my lovely voice like that? I and only I am the only one that is allowed to laugh in a regal manner like that. Stop it right now, you hag!"

Kodachi looked down... and saw something that looked like a furred version of herself, complete with muzzle and tail.

But that was something she only noticed secondarily. "Hag? HAG? What did you call me, you... you... you furred fiend! You bestial impersonator! This laugh is what marks me as a member of nobility. Hear my name and tremble in fear, beast! I am Kodachi Kuno, the Black Rose! Oh-ho-ho-ho-ho-ho..."

Leodachi grinned. "That's the best you can do? My laugh is much, much better than that. Truly, what is your lowly nobility against me, the QUEEN of the zoo? OH-ho-ho-ho-ho-ho..."

Kodachi snarled. She would show that fiend...

She took a deep breath and continued: "Oh-ho-ho-ho-ho!"

"Oh-ho-ho-ho-ho!"

"OH-HO-HO-HO-HO-HO-HO-HOOO!"

"OH-HO-HO-HO-HO-HO-HO-HOOO!"

"OOOH-HO-HO-HO-HO-HO-HO-HO-HOOOOO!!"

"OOOH-HO-HO-HO-HO-HO-HO-HO-HOOOOO!!"

All around the two crazed, pony-tailed girls, the people of Nerima winced and squirmed in pain while having to endure the horrible laugh... It sounded even more horrible in stereo.

----

Ukymel ran along the streets of Nerima. "Michan, how could you leave me like this...? I NEED you! I need some water! Water! Water! NOW!"

In her panic, she couldn't think of anything better than just running into the next store to ask the proprietor for a glass of water.

And that store just happened to be 'Ucchan's'.

The camel-girl slammed the door open upon entering, making every single customer in the restaurant jump in surprise.

Ignoring the scared looks the customers were giving her, Ukymel stormed up to the counter where a young and cute waitress was taking care of business while her/his mistress was in the back of the restaurant, fetching something from the storage rooms.

Ukymel slammed some coins Michiru had given her down on the counter. "WATER! NOW! QUICK! LOTS OF IT!"

Konatsu gasped as he stared at the furred figure that looked so much like his mistress. "U-ukyo-sama?"

Ukymel growled as good as a camel could and grabbed Konatsu by the collar. "Didn't you hear me? I NEED WATER! YOU WANNA SEE ME DIE OF THIRST?"

"R-right away, Ukyo-sama..." the kunoichi muttered and grabbed an empty glass, filled it with water and put it in front of the thirsty camel-girl, who downed it with a mighty gulp.

She slammed the empty glass down on the counter. "MORE!"

Konatsu used his ninja speed and skills to quickly fill eight more glasses with water and offered them to Ukymel, all of it happening within several seconds.

Ukymel drank and drank and drank... until she had enough (for now).

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH..." She put down the last glass. "That was great... Sugar, you're a real live-saver, you know that?"

And before the confused kunoichi could react, she grabbed his collar again, pulled him close... and gave him a fierce kiss, right on the mouth.

The customers applauded upon witnessing that scene, and an elderly woman who was a regular customer of the restaurant, wiped a tear out of her eye's corner. "Aaah, finally Kuonji-san brought herself to show her affections towards Konatsu-chan... That is so sweet!"

Then she frowned. Although Kuonji-san's costume looked kinda weird... Oh well, perhaps it was just some strange fetish of hers. Who knew about the strange habits of teenagers?


	10. Twin Sisters and a New Home

Shaking her head, Nabiki went upstairs. "That really was something else, even for Ranma's standards... imagine, having an animal-girl showing up that looks almost exactly like him and that sees him as her big brother?"

She chuckled. "Well, at least I can be pretty sure something like that won't happen to me..."

She opened the door to her room.

On Nabiki's bed, Nabatty the bat was lying on her stomach, the legs stretched out behind her and lazily wiggling around. In front of her, an open manga was lying.

Upon hearing that someone had entered the room, she turned her head around and smiled.

"Oh, hiya! So, you must be my original, eh? I must say, you've got a pretty good taste regarding mangas..."

Nabiki staggered backwards and leaned against her room's door frame. "I... I don't feel so good..."

Nabatty raised an eyebrow. "Drank too much last night? Yeah, I know that kind of feeling. Perhaps you should sit down for a moment..." She swung her legs over the edge of the bed, making room for Nabiki to sit.

Seeing her human counterpart hesitate, Nabatty grinned. "Hey, it's all right: I won't bite!"

"Um, if you say so..." The middle Tendo sister sat down, still feeling somewhat uncomfortable. "So... you're a friend of Ranko, huh?"

"You've seen her?" Nabatty asked. "Where is she?"

"Downstairs, I believe... sparring with her new 'big brother'."

"A big brother, eh? I'd like to hear the story behind that one... By the way, is that 'big brother' of hers good-looking?"

Nabiki considered demanding some money for that information, but decided against it. Besides, what would a bat-girl like her do with money anyway? "Well, he's kinda taken..."

'Yeah, by at least three girls at once,' she mentally added.

"Aw, bummer... well, no matter. I doubt he'd have a preference for furries like me." She stood up. "Well, guess I better call the others to tell them I've found Ranko."

"The others? Wait a minute... Just how many of you are out there?"

Nabatty gave Nabiki a sly grin. "I'm sure you'd love to know that, huh?"

"Yes. Now can you tell me or not?"

The bat-girl smirked... and held out her open palm. "That makes 3.000 yen."

Nabiki facefaulted. "You gotta be kidding me..." she murmured to herself. "Just what do you need money for?" she asked her animal-double.

"Why, to buy enough booze, of course... you know how much a bottle of top-quality sake costs?"

Nabiki groaned. "Great... of all the animal-doubles out there, I had to get the alcohol-addictive bat-girl..."

----

"Um... Ukyo-sama... it's nice to know that you like me and all, but... the customers are staring."

"Oh!" Embarrassed, Ukymel let go of the kunoichi. "I'm so, so sorry about that, sugar. I was just sooo happy that you gave me so much water... thank you!"

"Um, you're welcome... By the way, where did you get that costume?"

Ukymel blinked. "Costume?" Then she laughed. "Oh, I get it. You think I look like this because I'm wearing a costume, huh? Sorry, but that's just the way I am."

"B-but mistress... how did you...? I mean... that's a pretty strange new look for you."

Still not understanding that Konatsu thought she was someone else, Ukymel replied: "You don't like it?"

"O-of course I do!" Konatsu quickly answered. "Really!"

The camel-girl smiled again. "Aaah, that's so nice to hear, sugar..." And again, she gave Konatsu a hug.

Suddenly, the door to the storage room opened. "Konatsu, we're out of onions again, could you pleeeeaaaaaasseee..." Seeing the weird scene in front of her, Ukyo could not help but drawing out the last word she said. "Wh-whaaaaat's going on here?"

Konatsu turned around, saw Ukyo, gave off a shout of surprise, turned back around, saw Ukymel, shook his head and looked back at Ukyo.

"I'm seeing double!" he exclaimed.

"Hardly..." Ukyo exclaimed and grabbed her spatula. She marched up to her double menacingly. "All right, who are you and what are you doing to my Konat... to my employee?"

Ukymel grinned. "Giving her an innocent hug?"

"Try again, furry! And by the way: Stop impersonating me!"

"Hey, I already told your cute lil' waitress: That's just the way I am. By the way, I like your ribbon. Reminds me of my own..." She scratched her head. "Come to think of it, all of you reminds me of something... Have we met before?"

Ukyo growled. Now she was even making fun of her. "All right! Out of my restaurant, now!"

"Oh, you're the owner? Then you should give our sweetie here a raise, she's the most capable waitress I've ever seen in my life."

Ukyo was taken aback by that statement, looked at Konatsu - who was still dazed from seeing two Ukyos at once (not to mention the kiss and hug from the camel-girl one) - and murmured: "Okay... tell me what's going on here! And why do you look like me?"

Ukymel hit her own forehead. "I must've been stupid. Of course you look familiar... you must be my original."

She smiled, stepped forward and shook Ukyo's hand. "Hi, I'm Ukymel, your friendly neighborhood camel-girl double. Nice to meet you!"

And for a while, Ukyo was speechless.

----

Nabatty put down the phone. "Okay, I called Setsu... I mean, Sailor Pluto. She will inform the others. They should arrive here soon. And by the way, thanks for letting me use the phone."

"Uh, you're welcome..." Nabiki replied.

Ranko smiled while hugging her friend. "You came just to pick me up? Aww, Nabiki... I mean, Nabatty-chan, that's so nice of you!"

"Hey, I've been worried as much as the others... you tend to get into trouble quite often, you know that?"

Ranko stepped back and gave her a small hiss. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Remember the time when the zoo keeper entered your cage to feed you and you bit his hand?"

"Hey, that was an accident."

"Ranko, my cage is exactly opposite from yours... I could see everything. And that bite you gave him was hardly an accident."

"Meanie!"

"Well, they get along with each other just fine, don't you think?" Kasumi smiled.

Akane shook her head. "So, now we've got two prattling animal-girls in our home from which one has accepted Ranma as her big brother and the other one looks similar to my older sister... And let's not forget the fact that the Sailor Senshi are coming to our house - or that a leonine Kodachi is still on the loose."

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot about Leodachi," Nabatty said. "I wonder where she is right now..."

Suddenly, a loud crash made them all jump in surprise.

"OOOOOH-HO-HO-HO-HO-HOOO!" The horrible laugh came from the dojo. "Admit your defeat, human harridan! You're no match for my feline grace and strength!"

"That should be her now!" Ranko pointed out while smiling.

----

"You... you savage beast," Kodachi hissed, while trying to get out of the rubble that had fallen down on her. "I'll make you pay for this..."

But then, a red-striped whirlwind entered the room, stepping right on Kodachi's head while pouncing on her leonine twin.

"Mrow! Leodachi! You're here, too? Grrreat!"

The lion-girl blinked. "Leodachi?"

Ranko nodded. "Yeah! Nabiki - although she calls herself 'Nabatty' now - got the idea of giving us all new names. Leodachi sounds good, does it?"

The other cat of prey shrugged. "Maybe you're right... I would never share a name with such a rude human like her." And she gestured over to Kodachi, who was still trying to get free.

But then, Ranma, Nabatty and the Tendo girls entered the room, all of them trampling over Kodachi, as they didn't see her under all that rubble.

"That your missing friend?" Ranma asked the bat-girl.

Nabatty nodded. "Yeah, that's her. Hi, lion-girl! What's up?"

"What do you want?" Leodachi huffed. She never liked the bat much, especially not after her transformation. "Don't you have anything better to do? Like, searching some alcohol to consume?"

Nabatty seemed hurt. "Now, why would I do that when I've been searching all over town for you two?"

"But now we're all together again," Ranko smiled. "And we can get back to the zoo."

"To the zoo?" Leodachi asked. "Forget it! Never again shall I return back to that human prison!"

"But... but..." Ranko looked sad. "Do you want to leave us?"

"Why should I? You can come with me, right? Or are you telling me you all plan to go back behind those bars? I mean, think about it..." She spread her arms and smiled. "These powers... the ability to speak and think... and the pure strength. Isn't this a glorious gift? Why shouldn't we use it to rule over those pitiful humans that have imprisoned us and only fed us leftovers?"

"Those weren't leftovers," Ranko pouted. "That meat was very tasty... you're just spoiled, that's all!"

"Well, she doesn't seem to be very cooperative, right?" Nabiki asked her double.

Nabatty shrugged. "She has always been like this. By now I really wonder how we're gonna convince her to come with us..."

Leodachi stepped closer to Ranko. "You... you are the second strongest of us all. We slept in the same house in the zoo. You must know what I'm talking about. We are predators, while the humans are parasites."

"That's not true!" Ranko shouted. "My big brother isn't like that!"

In surprise, the lion-girl looked over to Ranma. "You... believe him to be your brother?" She then smirked. "But you do want to stay with him, right? But how, if you are going to go back to the zoo?"

"But... but..." Ranko really was confused now. She looked up at Ranma. "Big brother, you're coming with me, right? I mean, it's nice and warm in our cage, and the zoo keepers keep us fed..."

Ranma shivered. Living in a zoo cage, and the only companions being the zoo keepers and BIG, SCARY CATS?

Not even his cute, new sister could be worth such a fate.

He petted Ranko's head. "Ranko... I'm sorry, but I can't come with you. But... perhaps there's another way. If you really want to go back to the zoo, I can visit you. But if you like, you can always stay with us, here at the dojo." His gaze wandered over to Kasumi and Nabiki. "Um, if that's okay with your father, that is."

Ranko beamed up at him. "Rrrrranmaaaaa! Thank you!" And purring, she once again rubbed her head against his hands.

"Keeping a feral tiger-girl in your home?" Nabatty asked. "I mean, Ranko's not a normal kittycat, you know?"

"Oh, that's all right," Kasumi smiled. "I'm pretty sure we'll find a way. After all, the house gets demolished often enough by Ranma's fiancees or friends. She won't be a bother at all."

"Enough of this!" Leodachi snapped. "Ranko, come with me or not, it's your decision! But I WON'T go back to the zoo!"

"HEY!" Kodachi's voice came out from under the rubble. "Could you stop that nonsense and get me out of here?"

Then the door to the dojo opened yet again, and Nodoka walked in. Behind her, five girls in sailor fukus followed, everyone stepping on Kodachi's head.

"Ow, ow, ow, OW!"

"Ranko, Nabatty... those girls have been asking for you two!" Nodoka exclaimed.

"Nabatty!" Ami said in relief. "You found them!"

The bat grinned. "Yup! Lil' ol' me!"

Usagi stepped forward to Kasumi, who she believed to be the head of the house. "Excuse me for the intrusion. I am Sailor Moon, and we are the sailor suited defenders of peace and love... Sorry to barge in like this, but we've been searching for some animal girls."

"Oh, so you're friends of Ranko as well?" Kasumi smiled. "How nice! Would you all like to stay for a cup of tea?"

"We don't have time for this, I'm afraid," Rei interrupted. She then looked over to the lion-girl. "Hey, you! You're coming back with us to the zoo, like it or not!"

"Never!" she snarled.

"We can't let her leave," Makoto pointed out. "With her explosive talent, she'll be a danger for society."

"You're not going to hurt her, are you?" Ranko asked, worried about her friend.

"Don't worry, we'll try to subdue her without using too much force," Ami replied. "Venus, prepare to catch her with your Love-Me Chain!"

"Got it!" Minako nodded. "It's not like she can fly away, right?"

"SHABON SPRAY!" Mercury then shouted.

Ranma and the others were surprised, when suddenly, the room was filled with a cold fog.

"You'll never catch me!" Leodachi yelled, trying to find the exit. She then shivered. "Brrrr, this is cold..."

She then sniffed. "Ah... ah... AH... AAAAAAAAAHH..."

"Oh no!" Ranko yelped! "Take cover, everyone!"

Listening to the tiger-girl, the Senshi and members of the Tendo household dove for cover.

"Finally!" Kodachi sighed as she pulled herself out of the rubble. "Now, to finish that beast off..."

"AAAAAH-CHOOOOOOOOOO!"

"GAAAAH!" the force of the sneeze threw Kodachi backwards, as the force of the impact made the wall behind her collapse, and once again she found herself under a pile of rubble.

"Oh my!" Kasumi murmured while looking out of her hiding place. "I think we have to renovate the dojo again..."

"I will depart now," Leodachi stated. "I will not return to that zoo and you can't make me. Obviously, the influence of the humans has messed around with your minds." She stared at Nabatty despisingly, and at Ranko with a deep regret.

But before she could leave, a hand the size of Kasumi's stove came into the ruined dojo and scooped up the surprised lion-girl.

"HEY! What are you doing? Let go of me!"

"I don't think so," the titanic form of Apane grumbled while pulling her outside, where she was standing, right next to the koi pond. "If you don't want to come back willingly... then I'll just TAKE you back."

"You can't do this to me you brutal monkey!"

"Oh, I already did, did I?"

Akane gaped upon seeing her gigantic, primate double standing in front of the Tendo home, grasping the struggling Leodachi within her hand.

Nabiki stepped forward, watched the giant monkey-girl from all sides and nodded. "Yup, looks just as violent and intimidating as you, Akane."

"I'll say... HEY!! What's that supposed to mean?"

Ranma gulped. He was a tough fighter, and he already defeated strong opponents like Herb and Saffron... but seeing an Akane THAT big really made him feel uncomfortable. He just imagined what a mallet that size would be like and winced.

Ranko looked up at Apane with a smile. "Thanks, Akane!"

"That's 'Apane' now, Ranko!" the monkey-girl reminded her with a smirk.

"I don't know if I should see this as an offense or a compliment..." Akane muttered.

Ranko then looked at her leonine friend. "Leodachi... I'm sorry it has to end like this. But... don't you see? If you were to run through the human city like this, you would be in great danger, you know? I would be horribly worried about you."

"I can take care of myself..." Leodachi snapped.

"Maybe, but even a strong girl like you isn't invincible," Nabatty pointed out. "What would you do if they shoot you with a gun?"

Leodachi stopped struggling. She really hadn't thought about that.

"And think about it," Sailor Mars reminded her. "Do you know anything else besides life in the zoo? I can imagine that you don't really detest it like you want to make us believe."

"That's right!" Ranko smiled. "I can tell you she had a great time there. I know it, she lives in the cage next to me."

"You know what they say," Sailor Venus grinned. "Cage Sour Cage".

Her fellow Senshi weren't the only ones to sweatdrop. "That's 'Home Sweet Home', Venus..." Jupiter muttered.

Leodachi sighed in defeat. "All right, all right, I admit it: It HAS been kinda fun..." She suddenly smirked. "Besides, if I go and live by myself, who is going to serve me my food? A queen needs her servants, after all."

"I'm so happy you think this way," Ranko beamed at her fellow feline.

"Finally..." Sailor Moon sighed. "We caught them all... I'm really glad THAT'S over..."

"Not entirely," Mercury reminded her. "We still have to figure out what to do with them. Shouldn't we try to find a cure?"

"NO WAY!" both Apane and Leodachi yelled.

"I prefer staying this way, thank you..." Nabatty exclaimed.

Ranko whined and clinged to Ranma's legs. "Oniichan wouldn't like me anymore..."

"Um, excuse me?" a voice interrupted. "But I have the feeling this belongs to you..."

Ranma turned around. "Ucchan?"

Standing in front of the premises, nervously glancing up at the colossal Akane-monkey, was Ukyo, along with her own double, which was guzzling down gallons of water that Konatsu was serving her.

(Gulp, gulp, gulp) "Aaaaaah, how refreshing... Thanks, Konatsu-chan!"

Konatsu blushed. "A-anytime, Ukymel-sama..."

Ukyo shook her head as she saw the Senshi and the other animal-girls. "Look, I don't know what's going on here and I don't really know if I wanna know... But could you please get her away from me? Or else I fear that my water bill this month will ruin me."

----

The door leading to the Tomoe's living room opened.

"Hi, we're back!" Usagi shouted cheerily as she entered, followed by her Inner Senshi and most of the daimon-girls.

"You found them!" Hotaru said with excitement as she saw Leodachi and Ranko (who was accompanied by some unfamiliar persons). "Good job!"

Usagi smirked. "It was easy." Her gaze then fell upon Setsuna.

She tried very hard not to giggle when she saw the Guardian of Time's face. "P-pluto, you (giggle)... what happened to you?"

Setsuna groaned, while the others stared at the floppy ears, the curly tail and the pig-snout in the middle of her face.

"Just forgot about Pikari's little... condition," she mumbled.

"But..." Jupiter was confused. "She has been touching us all the way back here after we found her. And all Mars and I got were a pair of tiny tails..."

Pluto's eyebrow twitched. "Hotaru suggested to play a little game to kill some time..."

"So?"

"It was 'Twister'."

"Ah!"

Ranko giggled along with the others, then she introduced her new friends and 'family'. "Everyone, this is my big brother Ranma and his friends."

"Oh! How very nice to meet you!" Kasumoo exclaimed from above.

Everyone looked up. Because of her powers, Kasumoo was once again sticking to the ceiling. Luckily, all windows were shut.

"A flying, bovine Kasumi..." Akane muttered. "Now I've seen everything..."

Her tiny counterpart hopped over from Nabatty's shoulder to Akane's head. "Hey, you weren't that amazed when you saw me for the first time."

"I was..." Akane replied. "I was just too stunned to show it..."

In the meantime, Nabiki had noticed the shaking trash can that was wrapped with a metal chain.

"Hello? Do we still have to play? I want to be the one who's seeking for once..."

Nabiki frowned and faced her bat-double. "Azusa?"

Nabatty grinned. "Azusa."

Just then, the doctor entered the room. "Hello everyone," he greeted them. "Good to see you all made it back safely."

Nabatty smiled back at him. "Hey, doctor! You got a drink for me?"

With an amused grin, he shook his head. "Sorry, you completely emptied al of the bottles I had during your last visit."He then sighed. "I'm afraid I have bad news for you girls." He meant the daimons. "From what I realized, there is no cure for the special... condition you're in."

"Doesn't matter," Nabatty explained. "We all decided we want to stay like this anyway."

"Well, that's good to hear... but there's more. I just got a call from the zoo... and they said they're not willing to take you in any more... not like this."

"WHAT??" Apane shrieked and angrily punched down on Akane's head. "What's the big idea?"

"Stupid humans..." Leodachi growled. "I knew it... they can't be trusted. Let's chase them out of the zoo and claim it as our kingdom."

No one listened to her.

Ranko sobbed. (sniff) "I was hoping I could return... I liked living there... (sniff, sniff) WHAAAAAAAAAH!" She buried her face in her new brother's chest. "RANMAAAAA! I WANNA GO HOME!"

Ranma snarled. "I'd really like to go over there and pound some sense into their heads," he growled.

"That wouldn't help them either, Ranchan..." Ukyo sighed. Her double nodded.

Kasumi seemed to think about something. "Well, if that's the problem... why don't you all come and live in Nerima? The people there are used to strange things happening, and a few new residents with animal traits isn't really the weirdest thing they've seen."

"That's rrright!" Ranko immediately perked up. "I can live with oniichan, and Nabatty, Apane and Kasumoo as well..."

Akane didn't look too happy, but she sighed in defeat. "Fine," she growled. "Just don't try on my clothes," she warned her double. "I don't want them to be ripped to shreds..."

Ukymel smiled and hugged Ukyo and Konatsu. "Great! And I'll live at your place!"

"H-hey, you could at least ask," the okonomiyaki chef protested. But she had to smile. As an only child, the thought of having someone like a sister was nice indeed...

Pikari nervously raised her hoof-like hand. "Um... excuse me, but where would I stay?"

"Aw, we could always ask Akari," Ranma suggested. "I believe she would like it very much to have an almost-twin-sister."

"And I think I can produce some sort of charm that contains Sailor Moon's powers, so your powers wouldn't affect other people," Luna offered.

"I believe I could always stay at that big mansion of that lunatic gymnast..." Leodachi smirked. "Let's see her do anything about it... It will certainly be fun. OH-HO-HO-HO-HO-HO!"

Ranma wasn't the only one to grimace at the mental image of a second Kodachi in the neighborhood... Well, at least she didn't seem to be as demented as her original was.

"I guess we can always send Muttzusa to Miss Hinako..." Ukyo grinned. "She really has a way to deal with delinquents."

"Purrr-fect!" Ranko cheered. "I'm so happy! Now everyone has her own home and family!"

She then realized something. Walking up to Sailor Moon, she bowed and said: "I'm sorry that we caused all that trouble... I won't happen again."

"I understand," Usagi smiled. "You just wanted to be free, that's all. And I hope you will have nice lives with your new families."

Ranko nodded and smiled.

Just then, Sailor Mars realized something. "Wait a minute..." She scratched her head. "Don't you have the feeling we forgot someone?"

"Something else, has anyone seen Tuxedo Kamen and Chibimoon?" Luna asked.

----

Captain Todo was shaking with rage. "MCNICHOLS!! What is the meaning of this??"

Leon nervously backed off. "B-but, sir... These are the culprits of all those crimes... aren't you happy that I finally caught them?"

"All I see is that you captured two of the city's most renowned heroes and allies of the Sailor Senshi... and besides, who has ever heard of a police officer arresting a young child? Set them free at once!"

Chibimoon grinned while the scolded policeman had to remove their handcuffs. "See, I told you it would be fun to let us get caught."

"I have to admit you're right," Mamoru sighed. "But let's not do that again, okay?"

----

At the Nekohanten...

"QUACK, QUACK!"

"QUACK, QUACK!"

"QUACK, QUACK!"

Cologne buried her face in her hands. "Shampoo... you did it AGAIN, did you? I clearly told you NOT to use Shamchan's eggs anymore."

"Is not Shampoo's fault!" the lavender-haired amazon pouted. "Shamchan should not leave her eggs lying around all the time."

"Hey, is it Shamchan's fault if Shampoo always swings around her bonbori? Scares me out of my feathers every time."

The elder of the Chinese Amazon tribe was starting to believe that it hadn't been a very good decision to make the duck-girl a honorary member of the tribe... even if she DID defeat Shampoo and Mousse in combat.

"Now, how to deal with this mess...?" she mumbled while watching the customers that were wildly flapping around the restaurant.

Shamchan grinned while clutching her new 'pet' duck Mousse. Those amazons might be crazy people, but... finally, she felt at home.

As for Mousse... he didn't quite know if he should feel glad to be hugged by an almost exact duplicate of his love... or if he should worry about being suffocated.

"Q-quack..."


End file.
